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16—47372-2 OPO 



SOIL PROTECTION 

and 

SOIL IMPROVEMENT 

'^y JAMES E. RANDALL 



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Copyright 1922 

by 

James E. Randall 



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T. A. Randall & Co. 

Publishers 

Indianapolis, Ind. 



0)n!,A581646 
APR 15 1922 



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PREFACE. 

The need of complete information in one handy volume, in 
other woi'ds a ready reference book, covering the various 
phases pertaining to the Protection and Improvement of our 
soils, influenced the author in compiling the subject matter 
herewith set forth. The value of tile underdrainage in the 
up-building of the farm lands was considered of such vital 
importance that it is treated at length, showing the treatment 
and the results obtained in different types of soils. Then, too, 
since the farmer is deeply interested in all matters relating 
to the growing and handling of their crops, he should be great- 
ly concerned in the proper expenditure of the public moneyb 
for road building and in the securing for himself and his neigh- 
bors the best possible returns for such expenditure. The 
proper drainage of our highways has received less attention 
than the drainage of the farm. The lack of it, has resulted 
in the destruction of all kinds of roads and an Inexcusable 
waste of money. In fact injury resulting from lack of drain- 
age is greater than injury from traffic. The demand for better 
roads invites a study and knowledge as to how the money 
expended may not be lost. No class of taxpayers is more 
concerned than the farmer in the building of our roads so 
they will last. Hence, a portion of this book is given over to 
the subject of the Improvement of Our Rural Highways and 
an urgent appeal for earnest co-operation on the part of the 
farmer, for only through same can our people correct the 
present evil and make possible better conditions of traffic 
and the handling of the crops. 

The author wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness for 
the data used secured from Prof. G. I. Christie and A. T. 
Wiancko, of the Purdue University Agricultural Experimental 
Station, The International Harvester Company, The Western 
Tile Underdrainage Bureau and the many farmers who gave 
me most courteous consideration and co-operation when I In- 
spected their farms and enabled me to gather much valuable 
information. 

JAMES E. RANDALL. 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

The Importance of our Soil 7 

Soil the Work of Ages 8 

The Virgin Soil 8 

The Decrease in Soil Fertility 8 

Make up of our Soils 9 

Surface Washing 10 

Prevent Soil Erosion 10 

Washed Lands of Indiana 11 

Practical Methods of Correction 11 

Stops Soil Erosion and Makes Over Worn-out Land 15 

Yield More Than Trebled 16 

A No. 1 Land Now 17 

Fine Alfalfa Now Grown 17 

Rough Sketch of Walther's Farm 18 

Another Example 20 

Stock Watering Places Through Control of Drainage Water. . . 21 

Wet Fields Are Waste Land 28 

Adding Humus 25 

How to Increase Fertility 25 

Saving and Applying Manures 26 

Crop Rotation 26 

Deeper Plowing Better Tillage 26 

Growing Clover and Other Legume Crops 27 

Growing of Clover 29 

Kinds of Clover 30 

Values of Legumes to Indiana Soils 31 

More Land to Grass 32 

More Live Stock 32 

Stock and Feed Farming 32 

Ideal Barn Arrangement 33 

Corn Cutter Is Used 34 

Making Best Use of Commercial Fertilizer 35 

Fertilizer Formulas 37 

Indiana Soils Need Phosphate 34 

Lime for Acid Soils 38 

Lime Not a Fertilizer 39 

Effect of Ground Limestone on Acid Soil 39 

Value of Lime on Indiana Soils 40 

Soils of Indiana 40 

Clay Loam Soils 40 

Unglaciated Hill Lands 42 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



Slash Lands 43 

Rolling Clay Uplands 43 

Muck and Sandy Soils 44 

Tile Underdrainage 46 

Underdrainage Defined 46 

A Little of its History 46 

Durability of Tile in Drainage Work 47 

What Tile Underdrainage did for Dan Broadus 48 

More Than Trebled Yield First Year Tile Were Used 49 

An Ocular Demonstration of Value of Underdrainage 50 

What it Did for John Rohnier 52 

The Effective Work of Geo. Schebler 52 

The Clay Loam Soils 55 

How Mr. Holt Tiled his Farms '. 56 

Limestone Sweetens the Soil 58 

Weeds or Alfalfa 58 

Alfalfa Roots in Tile 60 

Value of Hairy Vetch 60 

Relation of Underdrainage to Soil Conditions 61 

What Underdrainage Did for Brewer Farm 61 

Got Rid of Bad Overflow 66 

Handling the Crop 71 

The Toner Farm in Shelby County 66 

The Marsh Lands of Indiana 69 

The Erickson Farm 70 

Benefits of Drainage 72 

In the Rolling Clay Uplands 72 

How to Install Underdrainage Svstems 76 

First Have A Plan ' 76 

The Outlets 76 

The Size of Tile 77 

Depth of Drains 80 

Distance Apart 80 

Putting in Ditches 80 

Laying the Tile 81 

Ditching by Machine 82 

Correct Way to Lay Large Tile 87 

Improvements of Our Rural Roads 88 

The Need of Good Roads 88 

The Cause of Road Trouble 89 

The Fundamentals of Good Road Construction 89 

An Ideal System of Subdrainage 94 

Advantages ' 96 

A Successful Plan 90 

The Cost 92 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement, 

By James E. Randall. 



The Importance Did you ever ponder over the great vital impor- 
of Our Soil. tance of our soil? Take it away from this planet 

v^e are living on and what would happen? All 
vegetation would disappear in season, the streams would cease 
to carry any fertility on to the ocean. In time the fishes of 
the sea would be no more. When the storehouses were exhausted of 
their supplies, the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the air depleted, 
man would surely perish. So it can be truthfully said that soil is 
the source of all wealth and life and that all values, even our existence, 
depends on the soil. As we protect and improve our soil we safe- 
guard and increase the security of our posterity. The soil is our 
inheritage. 'Tis our bounden duty to our children and our children's 
children to protect it, nourish it and improve it that we may give the 
farm lands to the next generation or our successors in as good if 
not better condition than in which we found them. So we must give 
deep careful consideration to the ways and means of properly work- 
ing our farm lands. 

Soil the Work To rightly understand our great responsibility in con- 
of the Ages. nection with soil protection and soil improvement let 
us dwell but briefly on one important point before 
taking up the many factors effecting our soils and the profitable and 
correct working of same. 

The soil is a thin blanket or la3^er covering the earth, the ac- 
cumulation of the ages, derived from our primitive rocks by the dis- 
integrating process called weathering, the wearing and shifting powers 
of the elements and by glacial action. The doctrine that generally 
obtains is that lichens, the first occupants of the initial layer so 
formed, contributed by their life and death in turn to soil formation 
and thereby made life possible for the mosses and the succeeding 
plant growth. These in like manner yielded their increase and ren- 



8 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 

dered it possible for plants of a still higher order to grow, flourish 
and so on until perfect soils were produced in which all plants might 
luxuriate. The making of our soils with their remnants of decayed 
vegetable and animal matter known as humus or mold, containing 
the soil organisms so important to the agriculturists, was a slow 
process covering many thousands of years, in fact the work of the 
ages. Yet it would take but a few short years to destroy this great 
reservoir of God-given fertility if no thought was given to return in 
a measure the great amount of fertility taken off each year in crops, 
straw, stover, etc. Therefore, soil protection and soil improvement 
are all important problems needing most careful attention. 

The Virgin Soil. When the soil came to us from the hand of nature 
it was open, arable — full of vegetable matter — re- 
sulting from the decay of leaves, twigs, trees and vegetable growths 
for centuries. After cutting away the timber and removing the roots, 
the soil broke easily and was made ready for planting or sowing 
seed, with little labor and the crops were easily cultivated and the 
roots of the growing corn were heroically pruned by deep plowing 
with single and double shovel plows but the soil conditions were so 
favorable that corn would make a vigorous growth notwithstanding 
the severing of half or more of the rootlets. When breaking the land 
it was a common remark to say "The dirt falls from the mole-board 
of the plow like an ashbank." The crop yield was not marvelous 
considering the soil conditions but very satisfactory indeed. 

Our soils are not so arable now and not so productive or easily 
tilled, especially those that have not been brought up to the standard 
with ideal farm practice. Now our soils must be plowed and made 
ready for planting or sowing seed within three or four days after 
they become dry enough in the spring to plow. If we fail to improve 
the time named, then the land breaks up cloddy and requires repeated 
working and much labor to put it into a satisfactory condition. 

The preparation of the soil and the cultivation of crops recjuire 
much more labor now than was needful when the soil was fresh, 
open, porous and arable, and the yield of grain is not so satisfactory 
and our meadows and pasture lands do not grow such vigorous grasses 
as in the early days, on account of the want of better soil conditions 
and the decrease of fertility. 

The Decrease of The decrease of our soil fertility is to be accounted 
Soil Fertility. i^*'i' i''^ many ways. The growing of crops and the 

selling of them by the bushel and ton ofi: of land 
was indeed a selling of fertility. There was nothing thought of 
it for many years, in fact there was a general feeling of confidence 
in supposing that soil fertility could hardly be exhausted, at least 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



MAKE-UP OF SOILS 

Soil is made up of exceedingly small particles of 
irregular shapes, varying composition, and different 
properties. 

It is formed by the breaking down of rocks, which 
are disintegrated by the weather, ground up and dis- 
tributed by glacial action and floods, and mixed with 
the products of successive ages of vegetation. 

These particles as they appear under the micro- 
scope are rough and irregular, some of them exceed- 
ingly small. As the soil particles cannot lie together 
so as to form a solid mass there is a large amount of 
intervening space, which in the average soils equals 
nearly half its volume. 

SURFACE TENSION 

As a result of a force which is known as surface 
tension each particle of soil holds a film of water over 
its entire surface and thus provides a supply of mois- 
ture for the roots of the plant. When the quantity of 
water in the soil is so much greater than is required 
to supply that which is held by surface tension that the 
remaining space is filled, the soil is said to be satu- 
rated. 

Provided with a tile outlet, this surplus water, or 
water of saturation will pass off by force of gravity, 
leaving only the film of moisture which is held by sur- 
face tension and which furnishes the required moisture 
for plant growth. 

Fifteen to twenty per cent of all water which a 
soil will hold WILL NOT PASS OFF BY DRAIN- 
AGE but remains to contribute to the growth of the 
plants and to aid in the further preparation of addi- 
tional plant food. — Western Tile Drainage Bureau. 



10 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



not for two or three generatitons. They began to awaken when many 
of the farm lands were worn out and produced but little. The sell- 
ing of our farm crops by the bushel or the ton without replacing 
any of the great amount of fertility taken away in this manner is 
not the only serious loss that is drawing heavily on our soil fertility. 

Surface Washing. The surface washing of our cultivated lands is 
taking from the soil, vegetable matter, the fer- 
tility brought to the surface by the capillary action, the fertility 
brought down by the rainfalls and the fertility applied in part, from 
manures and fertilizers, together with the fine particles of the soil — 
all this is passing away in the muddy dark dyed water which runs 
into the little streams and on into the larger streams never to return. 

The average farmer turns the soil about five inches in depth, 
plants, cultivates and gathers the crops and sells them, and leaves 
the land bare much of the year to be washed as before described, 
and the following year turns up the other side and does the same 
with it, and so on year after year for thirty or forty years. If the 
humus or vegetable matter and much of the fertility is not exhausted 
by this time, it must be extraordinary soil. 

In view of this state of facts, is it any wonder that our soils do 
not plow and are not as easily tilled and do not yield as abundant 
crops as they did when they came to us from the hand of nature? 

Prevent Soil Statistics show that through the enormous waste of 
Erosion. farm land occasioned by the action of erosion or soil 

washing that two per cent, of the entire main land 
of the United States has been devastated and that this total would 
mean 4,000,000 acres or nearly 100,000 crop-producing farms that 
have been destroyed. While the real time to prevent such disasters 
is before they start, a great service can be rendered by the farmers 
if they use and urge farm practices that will provide for the pre- 
vention of soil washing and this applies to both cultivated and un- 
cultivated lands. 

Many practical methods have been suggested by representative 
farmers such as the following: 

1. Scattering a little straw in the furrow to catch the sediment 
and stop washing. 

2. A liberal top-dressing of barnyard manure to not only build 
up fertility of the soil, but to help in holding sloping land when 
heavy rains fall. 

3. All gutters to be filled in with straw, corn stalks, weeds or 
any kind of rubbish that can be gathered up on the farm. 

4. Leave the fourth crop of alfalfa stand. 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



11 









Land in bad condition, but a little work will establish pasturage. 

THE WASHED LANDS OF INDIANA 

There are thousands of acres of land in Indiana 
which were once fairly productive, but which by rea- 
son of neglect have become badly eroded and prac- 
tically worthless. 

Some of the most important ways of preventing 
washing are strip farming, mulching the brow of the 
steep slopes, skip plowing, diverting the run-off, and 
keeping the land in permanent vegetation. 

Some of the most evident means of recovering 
land that is badly washed is that of filling in with 
straw, corn stalks, weeds, brush, even tree tops, logs, 
and trees. These fillings will in a short time check 
and hold large quantities of silt and stop washing. 
The filling in process can be greatly hastened by plow- 
ing and scraping in the ridges, and the land can be put 
in use by sowing alfalfa and other hay and pasture 
plants, or the growing of wheat and corn. 

Denuded surfaces can be reclaimed by liming and 
preparing the seed bed and sowing to grasses, particu- 
larly red top and Kentucky blue grass. — Purdue Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station, Circular 20. 



12 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



5. Sow rye and grass seeds in the washes, cover with straw 
and when this grows through it will form a matting that can not 
easily be washed out. 

6. Fill up a gully or ditch when that gully or ditch first begins 
to start or wash by throwing in a forkful of straw or an armful 
of brush to stop the water cutting back or sidewise. 

7. If the gullies are not too deep the banks may be plowed 
down, first filling with straw, brush, etc., to prevent future wash- 
ing; then after the ditches ? are filled up and ground leveled the 
ground to be sown to some kind of grass that will produce good 
sod. 

8. Plow the ground in beds or lands of not more than ten 
yards in width. 

9. Driving a wagon across a muddy field or down a hillside 




A Draw That Gi'ew Weeds and Willows 
and Was a Source of Trouble. 



Gathering Large Well-Filled Ears of Corn- 
60 Bushels to Acre on Former Draw. 



leaving wheel tracks starts soil washing. Take care of the wheel 
tracks or ruts by tossing in straw, brush etc. 

10. Get the hill slopes in grass, meadows or pasture, and keep 
them under a covering of grass roots as long as possible. 

11. Crop rotations should be so arranged as to keep the land 
in some growing crop practically the year round. Cultivated fields 
should be planted to something in the fall of the year that will tend 
to hold the soil during the winter and early spring when the most 
of the soil washing occurs. Either rye or vetch would be a good 
crop for this purpose. 

12. Erosion can be controlled to some extent by the use of 
terraces, those used in this country are of two general classes, the 
bench terrace and the ridge terrace, each having variations which 
are adapted to particular conditions of topographv and soil. 



Soil Protection and Soil Ini prove nieni 



13 



These suggestions are well worth considering and can be used 
with good effect, but the writer feels that the best method for 
the prevention of soil washing has not been mentioned in the above. 
As long as there is a surface run-off, you will have soil erosion. 
If your ground is dense and does not allow the water to go through, 
soil washing is bound to take place. This soil needs to be made 
porous and open and a means supplied, such as tile, to get rid of 
the surplus water. Tile undcrdrainage will not only prevent soil 
washing but increase the fertility of the land. If your soil is close 
grained, you will not raise the crops you should until you open 
it up and allow the fertilizing elements to go down into it. Tile 
undcrdrainage will make the hardest clay porous, will open it up 
and allow air circulation to greater depths. The water beating 





Which Do You Prefer, the Good Crop of Corn 
or the Crop of Weeds? Drainage Pays. 
Soil Washing Was Stopped and Production 
Increased by Tiling the Draw on Eby Farm. 

down upon the land will sink into the soil, if the soil is open, and 
the tile drains will carry away the surplus thus giving the water 
some means of escape and preventing the surface washing. In 
getting rid of this surplus water, you arc accomplishing another 
splendid thing, the water passing down through the soil to the drain 
tile will carry a great amount of nitrogen and fertilizing elements 
you would not get into your soil otherwise. If your land is prop- 
erly underdrained, there will be no appreciable surface washing for 
the soil will take in the water like a dry sponge and the drains 
will carry it away. Hill-top farms naturally are more subject to 
erosion. Many farmers think a hill-top farm does not need tile 
undcrdrainage, believing that it has a natural drainage suitable for 



14 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 

all purposes. This is decidedly a mistaken idea. There is scarcely 
a farm in the state but needs some drainage. You can't drain too 
thoroughly. Hill-top farms, nine cases out of ten, will consist of 
hard clay soils. Here is where the greatest soil washing occurs. 
Make the soil less resisting, make it open to receive the rains and 
the snows and soil washing is prevented to a great extent. 

A farmer in Fayette county, Ind., has been working wonders 
with worn-out cut-up lands, which a few years ago were not even 
fit to turn cattle on. The land was full of cuts and gullies, covered 
with rank patches of weeds, briers, bushes and wild growths, there 
being little or no grass. Mr. Eby, the gentleman referred to, is 
one of the large land owners of Fayette county. He is an energetic, 
hustling, up-to-date farmer, who carefully studies farm practices 
and is never afraid to go ahead with his projects once he is thor- 
oughly convinced that his theories are sound. His lands in the 
north part of the county are excellent, but his Columbia township 
farm, the one we wish to tell about at this time, is composed of 
some very good farming land, but about half is rolling with almost 
steep hill-sides underlaid with a hard clay subsoil. Five years ago 
this clay land was unfit for farming or even pasturing. 

It is one of Mr. Eby's delights to take this kind of land and 
make it produce. He took a section of similar land some years 
■ ago, thoroughly tiled it, opened up the soil, made it porous, got rid 
of a 'great deal of the soil washing and soon had this formerly dense, 
cold, clay, gullied land producing a fine crop of alfalfa. The land 
did not show much improvement the first year for it took con- 
siderable time to get the soil in a porous condition, but once this 
was accomplished, great improvements were made. Instead of rank 
growth of weeds, briers, etc., a thick bed of alfalfa covered the. 
ground and a seemingly non-productive land was made into a 
money making field. Five years ago this land was worth about 
$10 an acre. After the improvements were put in, it was worth at 
least $75 an acre, while today, with its greatly added productivity, 
it is safe to say that Mr. Eby would not take $150 an acre. 

The illustrations shown were taken during the late summer 
of 1916 of a new part of the Columbia township land which he 
turned into a field of alfalfa. Notice the deep cuts and gullies, 
the rank growth of weeds and barren spots ; they show the non- 
productive condition of this land prior to making improvements. 

Mr. Eby did extensive tiling on this land, using over 15,000 
feet of 5-inch tile in 1916 and nearly that amount the year before. 
On the land tiled first he grew corn in 1916 which made a good 
yield, considering the bad season and condition of the soil. His 
crop yield the next season was much better. His tiling was paid 
for in full within a very short time and his production increased 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 15 

as the soil was built up and enriched. The land he tiled in 1916 
grew a fair crop in 1917, but the second crop was much better be- 
cause at first the subsoil was so hard and had had little time to 
become porous. 

Much comment has been made lately by quite a number of 
farmers on the splendid crops produced on Fayette county rolling- 
land, some of which would not bring as much per acre by $50 or 
$75 as good black Rush county land, but produced a crop of corn 
last year equally as good and in some cases even better than the 
higher priced lands. This is good evidence that rolling land, where 
soil washing has been a big problem is a sure crop producer when 
it is well underdrained. 

Tile underdrainage is a splendid prevention of soil washing 
and should be the real basis of any work to save the land from the 
great waste of erosion. Of course tile underdrainage cannot in all 
cases absolutely prevent soil washing for there are places in the 
land which need abutments, filling or the sowing of grass or some 
crop to hold the soil in place. 

Hill-top farming should really be devoted to the growing of 
the smaller grains, these preventing soil washing in the main. The 
twelve suggestions referred to in the first part of this subject are 
well made and should be used wherever possible to prevent soil 
washing, but tile underdrainage should be first considered. 

The Eby land, before being improved, was a source of expense 
to him, he receiving no income whatever from it. This land, al- 
though hilly, had mossy growths and patches of red sorrel indica- 
tive of a sour condition. Indiana has thousands of acres of just 
such hill-top or rolling lands wdiere soil-washing is taking away 
constantly the richest part of the soil. This soil washing could be 
eliminated and good crops produced if the land were thoroughly 
tile underdrained and the suggestions made above followed where 
applicable. 

Scores of similar examples could be pointed out in these pages 
(in truth this big factor tile underdrainage which is the best in- 
vestment the farmer can make, is truly the real foundation for suc- 
cessful profitable farming) but there is so mudh more to tell about 
underdrainage later on in this book that the writer feels that but 
two other examples which are well worth the reader's careful study 
will suffice on surface washing. 

Stops Soil Erosion and Fourteen years ago George and Her- 

Makes Over Worn Out Soil, man Walthers, who formerly farmed in 

Ohio, purchased the old Colescott farm, 
located on Mt. Carmel Hill near Brookville, Franklin Count}^, Indiana. 
This is hill-top land in one of the finest scenic sections of Hoosierdom. 



16 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 

For more than forty years this farm had been worked with variative 
failure. The land consisted of cold clay soil on top of a hill regarded 
by farmers of the community as having- all the drainage necessary. 
The land was obtained from the government 100 years ago by Cole- 
scott. It was heavily timbered then. The clearing of the land was 
the real basis of prosperity in those days. After the timber was re- 
moved, forty years ago the farmers turned to cultivating the soil. It 
was planted in wheat and corn year after year with indifferent suc- 
cess and changed ownership several times, each purchaser attempting 
to cultivate the soil into fertile condition without success for the 
ground was dense, badly eroded and worn out and the rains washed 
the fertilizers into the gulleys and wore cuts into the- hillsides that 
made farming difficult. 

The land produced at best thirty bushels of corn or twelve bushels 
of wheat to the acre and not a very good quality of crop at that. So 
when the Walther boys, stock buyers, bought this depleted farm for 
$48 an acre and said they were going to undcrdrain it thoroughly, the 
farmers thereabouts said they were crazy and headed straight for the 
poorhouse. All this ridicule did not bother the Walther brothers, how- 
ever, for they were working on a theory they thoroughly believed in. 

They bought the old Colescott farm of 160 acres and also a 100- 
acre tract of land adjoining. At this time, fourteen years ago, only 
fifty acres were in cultivation on the old farm, the rest being covered 
with weeds or briars, and the fences were in a dilapidated condition. 

The Walther brothers, being thoroughly experienced in stock 
and trading and having gained a good farming knowledge on a farm 
in Ohio, decided they could make a great deal more money by stock- 
ing a farm with the best feeding stock and preparing the stock for the 
market, than they could by straight buying and selling. With the 
idea of running a feed and stock farm they immediately began to pre- 
pare their newly bought land paying little heed to the well meant 
advice of the neighboring farmers. 

Yield More Than The first year they built a suitable road up to the 
Trebled. farm and fenced the entire property. Five men 

were employed constantly the first two years ditch- 
ing the land, hauling, putting in clay drain tile and filling in the gul- 
leys. A barn was built and the farm straightened up in general. By 
the end of the second year eight miles of tile drains had been laid and 
a great improvement in production of crops was at once noticed. 
Every year more tile drains were put in until today more than four- 
teen miles of clay drain tile are in use on this farm. Each succeeding 
year there has been an improvement in the crops until today this farm 
is producing from eighty to 100 bushels of corn to the acre, where 
formerly it produced only thirty bushels and forty bushels of wheat 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 17 



against the twelve bushels to the acre before the farm was tile- 
drained. In 1917 they had the record yields of 110 bushels of corn 
and 53 bushels of wheat to the acre. 

Every farmer who had regarded the Walthcr brothers as wild 
in their scheme and had said the land had all the natural drainage 
necessary are now strong in their praises and are turning their atten- 
tion to underdraining their land. 

This cold clay land was so dense and close grained the water 
could not get into the soil and all the fertilizers placed there pro- 
duced no good result, for the ingredients needed could not get down 
into the soil and were washed away into the gullies without serving 
any purpose. The soil being dense the air was not permitted to cir- 
culate in it and the needed nitrogen could not get to the plant roots. 
The growth, therefore, was stunted and a poor crop resulted. The 
plants could not reach out for the food they needed and there was 
not sufficient air. A plant will not thrive in a cramped place. It needs 
I)lenty of air and, like humans, can not be healthy with "wet feet." 

A No. 1 Land Now The Walther brothers knew the needs for good 
plant growth, studied the conditions of the soil 
near Brookville and did the onl}^ thing possible to open it up, make it 
porous and prepare the way for enriching it. The land on this farm 
is A No. 1 now. Tile drainage did the trick. The subsoil was broken 
up, the pore spaces were enlarged, thus permitting the water to go 
into the ground and the excess water to pass off through the drains. 
The water passing into the soil took with it the fertilizing elements 
needed and the soil was thus enriched. The air entered the pore 
spaces and circulated in the soil, giving the plant a goodly quantity 
of nitrogen. The soil being rid of its denseness, the plant roots went 
deeper into the ground in search of the plant food needed . The soil 
became warm, thawed quickly in the spring, was easier prepared and 
gave a month's longer season, so the crop was well in hand before the 
frost came. 

The second year after the first lot of tiles was put in, the profits 
were more than sufficient to pay for the tiling. At first, clover, corn 
and wheat were grown with great success. The second year, part 
of the land was put to alfalfa, sowed broadcast. There wasn't a good 
stand, so it was plowed under, and the ground limed and then seeded. 
This resulted in as fine a crop of alfalfa as could be made. The soil 
needed lime rock. 

Fine Alfalfa The Walther brothers were ridiculed when they made 
Now Grown. known the fact that they intended to raise alfalfa on 
their farm. The farmers declared that alfalfa could 
not be grown in that kind of soil, but soon they saw the fallacy of 
their belief and were not slow in taking advantage of the example 



18 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



set. Some of the finest alfalfa in the state is grown in Franklin county 
today. One farmer, last summer, obtained more than six tons of 
alfalfa to the acre. 

The Walther farm has twenty-six acres of alfalfa, which is cut 
three or four times a season. After the crop is removed, a disc har- 
row is run over the ground when found convenient. Seven years 
ago there was an unusually wet season, and crab grass got started 
in the alfalfa, but this was killed out by running the disc both ways. 
The alfalfa does not require reseeding, it grows year after year, im- 
proving in quality. There is no expense necessary, except for liming. 

Sixty of the 260 acres in the farm are in clover. Last season 







mm 



>.>>.»« 



mii 





110 Bushels Corn and Laige Crop Soy Beans on Land Formerly 
Badly Eroded. 

there was a good stand. Herman Walther declared this was the best 
clover he ever saw. He also said he noticed that where they had 
grown corn and soy beans the year before, the clover looked much 
better, stronger and healthier. He attributes the good growth prin- 
cipally, however, to the tile underdrainage and manure combined. 
Every inch of the corn ground is covered with manure each year. 
Rough Sketch The rough sketch of the farm shows the fences, tile 
of the Farm. drains, roads and location of the house, barn, etc. 
This is not accurately drawn to scale, for there were 
no blue prints or drawings to be obtained. The sketch was made 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



19 



from rough outlines made while in conversation with the Walther 
brothers. The corrugated lines used to indicate the boundaries of 
the high ground on the farm were drawn to give an idea of the 
slope of the land and the need for placing the tile drains in the man- 



COLRMN RO>\D 



6LU£ G^P\^S Pasture 
-— ' -• — .-d 



I _ I » I 1 I 

w^w^ I r. 

INTO h>- 







J H IGHl LAND f^rGH L|./\ND^ ^ V^iC.^ 




Dam 



DAf^ 



^^^-^ ENCLOSES MiGHLaWd 
--ENCLOSES. LOWUAND 
'— '— ' FEKce 

~<^ IlLE DR/MMS 

O Outlet 
All L-aterals S iNch 



"PLOUGH SKETCH 

Walther BR05.rARm 

BROOKVILLE^ 

FRANKL»N,Co.lNa 



ner laid. The borders of the prominent hollows are indicated by 
dotted lines. The drains are shown by straight lines, those not 
marked being of five-inch tile, the smallest tile used on this farm. 
All tiles were laid thirty to thirty-two inches deep, there gen- 



20 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



erally being a fall of one foot to 100 feet in the lines. In some places 
the fall is much greater than this. The outlets are indicated by 
circles. The southwest section of the farm has the deepest hollow 
The water from the drains on this part of the farm empties into the 
pasture land which is fenced in. Sections in rotation to the west 
of the pasture are put in corn and soy beans every year and "hogged 
ofif," forty acres of corn being required to fill the ten large silos 
There is a blue grass pasture in the southeast corner of the farm. 

The twenty-six acres of alfalfa are along the eastern side. There 
are two fields of fifty acres each and one of thirty-five acres planted 
in corn, wheat and clover and rotated yearly. 

The first cost of this farm was $48 an acre. The Walther boys 
today would not sell this farm for $200 an acre. 

Another Hiatt Frost, one of the most successful farmers in In- 
Example diana, so well known for his farming knowledge, through 
his writings, addresses and real work on his two fine 
farms near Connersville, Ind., that Governor McCrea appointed him 
one of a commission of three to recodify our drainage laws, in a 
recent interview stated : 

"Having in the past twenty-fi\'e years constructed some fifteen 




Tile Fed Trough From Big Spring 40 Rods Away. The Overflow From 
This Is Taken on Through Tile Drain to Another Trough 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



21 



miles of tile drains, largely on what is called semi-dr}', rolling lands, 
I have been so impressed with my success in draining all but sandy 
or gravelly lands that I am ready to subscribe to the slogan, "More 
Tile Drains, More Net Gains." 

"Underdrainage supplemented by a regular rotation in which 
the largest possible amount of humus is kept in the soil, not allowed 
to remain bare through the winter, practically stops erosion and 
gullying. The land is soon dried on top and quickly and early in 
the season relieved of the nuisance water down to the full tile depth, 
wet places are tapped by such tiling along with the drier portions, 
larger and more vigorous plant roots are invited and even forced 
to bore deeper and later decay and make an enlarged stratum of 
humus, and deeper breaking is encouraged and made possible; where- 
by the water reservoir or intake capacity is easily doubled and erosion 
is correspondingly diminished. 

Crop production is increased because the plant food reservoir 
is much enlarged by the early lowering of the water level. Plant 
growth is better able to withstand drouths because of the deeper 
rooting and the taking of more water down into the lower reservoir 
therefrom the more abundantly later to supply the plant roots by 
capillarity. There also results better sub-soiling from the deeper and 




Second Trough Receiving Water Overflow From First Trough and 
Drainage Water Collected From Main and Lateral Drains. 



22 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



more vigorous plant rooting and increase in porosity of the soil, 
whereby more air is let into it, thus both unlocking plant food and 
sweetening the soil. 

By taking in more of the nitrogen-charged rain and snow water 
that costly plant food element is correspondingly increased in the 
soil. The soil is also given additional warmth in the spring at which 
time the rains are warmer than the soil and the soil made drier by 
this sub-drainage, takes in more sun-warmth, thaws out more quickly 
and warms up earlier, the cooling process of evaporation is checked 
and the soil thus made drier neither freezes so deeply nor so un- 
resistingly. Such conditions practically make our heavy' clay lands 
as warm and dry as our more porous bottom lands with gravelly sub- 
soil. These clay lands thus warmed and dried allow much earlier 
planting as well as earlier breaking and quicker and more effective 
and easier working, thereby conserving horsepower. Thus we make 
our heavy clay lands quite the equal in warmth and earliness of our 
more porous bottom lands while they still have the towering advantage 
of a practical reliable supply of capillary moisture to draw from 
through the dry part of the growing season. 

Many of these apparently small items that we have thought 
but little of soon aggregate into the one big item of less erosion, larger 
crops and added permanent value to our cultivated lands. 

No little advantage will result from increased water supply for 
stock by reason of many instances of carrying water down into a 




Outlet to Drainage Sysrom and Overtiow From two Watering Troughs. 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



23 



lower field and in other cases by giving a constancy to the water 
supply at the tile outlet from tapping springy and sprouty sections 
of the soil. 

I have often wondered how many landowners have taken ad- 
vantage of the drains to put stock-watering places down below in 
other fields, where before there were only water and mud holes a 
few months each year, by tapping springs, seepy spots and hog wal- 
lows and thereby securing an almost constant supply of clear, clean 
water. The accompanying illustration shows the system on one of 
my farms, there is rarely a year with a month of water shortage, 
and where before there was a mud-hole supply not three months per 
year. 

We have lands with tiled-outlet runs through them that are over 
a deep gravell}^ subsoil, lands where probably there is little excess 
water at any time ; land, too, where there is considerable run-ofl^, 
lands tiled only 20 feet apart and lands where topography and soil 
character are just the same over the tile as 4 or 5 rods away, and I 
have observed the growths of both deep and shallow-rooted plants 
directly over these tiles and as far as five rods away, arid in the driest 
season in the first year's growth of clover when roots are only slightly 
developed and even when the season was so dry as to kill out the 
clover in spots this, remember, before the roots had had time to 
establish themselves deep down toward the more permanent mois- 




Hogs Play Havoc With Outlets— See They Are Hog Proof. 



24 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 

ture supply — and I have never been able to observe but what the 
plant growth seemed always as good, and in many cases apparently 
better, over and nearer the tile than several rods away, on exactly 
the same topography and character of soil. When the full rooting 
has developed, it is perceptibly better over than far from the tile, 
generally. So no more worry for me that I may on any kind of 
soil and in the dryest season overdo this tile drainage. This can be 
accounted for in part, by reason of more water getting down into 
the soil below the tile line. 

Tile drainage not only will increase the productiveness of these 
so-called fairly dry lands very materially indeed, but in case of classes 
of cold, backward, but level lands in this state, the production will 
easily be doubled. By reason of this increased crop production and 
the checking of erosion, the permanent value of our hilly or rolling 
and washy lands on an average will also be doubled." 

We know that the water from tile in perfect working order and 
having no in-takc is always clear as spring water — there is no erosion 
therefrom — w^hile the run-off "over the top" of the soil is roily — ■ 
badly discolored with soil particles in suspension. 

Do we fully realize what tile drainage has already done for us 
in Indiana in reclaiming wet lands? Systematic drainage of our 
so-called dry lands in connection with the wet spots therein will 
aggregate even more benefit. 

Many farms in Indiana now have two, three or four acres of 
their best land in draws and depressions that the i)l()W has never 
touched that would repay the entire cost of drainage the first two 
years. In contemplating work of this kind, you should lay out and 
prepare for a system, though for the present you are only draining 
a draw. Make as few outlets as possible, the mains deep and outlet 
absolutely hog proof, with a generous cement header. Hogs are the 
greatest menace to tile outlets as well as to wrongly located tile in 
springy places. Always cut in higher up, not below, springs, stop 
all swirl-holes at once, cement the junctions, close up dead ends ef- 
fectually, lay tile so as to leave the closest possible joints, cement 
all open joints in large tile cut across occasionally and not follow gully- 
channels, kill out all bush and tree growths near tile that has con- 
stant flowing water use a five-inch tile or larger laterals on flat 
ground, four-inch laterals are ample where there is a good fall, and 
make permanent in-takes of cement, and by such construction and 
maintenance, make your drainage practically everlasting. 

In a broader view complete tile drainage of practically all of 
our cultivated lands would prove a national benefit in largely restor- 
ing pioneer conditions to our prairie and forest lands by reducing 
soil erosions, and by giving constanc}'- to streams, lengthen river 
navigation, minimize floods and almost double water power; and for 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 25 



these reasons the state and national government should foster such 
drainage as a conservation move, of world-wide value." 
Adding Humus It should be the leading thought in the manage- 
ment of the farm, to get all the vegetable matter 
which is reasonably available into the soil. It is not only so much 
more added fertility, and the store-house of the needed moisture, but it 
so greatly improves the mechanical condition of the soil, that it is 
easily plowed and tilled, and promotes a more vigorous growth of 
farm crops and greater yield and better cjuality of products. 

Straw, stalks and vegetable matter of all kinds, which would 
otherwise be lost, should be turned into the soil, together with an 
occasional green crop. "More Humus — More Humus," should be 
the watch-word on the farm. Plan to do this more and more, do 
not consider it a loss, but rather a deposit in the bank to be drawn 
upon in crop growing. The burning of straw, cornstalks and other 
vegetable matter which would serve to make up some of the loss 
occasioned by surface washing, is a serious waste. Again and again 
we have seen stubble fields, the aftermath of meadows and litter of 
all kinds, burned to avoid turning it under, which would add to fer- 
tility and better soil conditions. 

How to Increase -^^t the base for increasing and maintaining the best 
Soil Fertility. soil fertility, is underdrainage, where the soil needs 

it, and most clay soils do need this important im- 
provement. In fact nearly all of our soils in Indiana need to be 
underdrained. Underdrainage, deepens the soil — in our drift clays we 
may have a depth of soil as deep as we drain — if the tile are laid well 
at a depth of four or five feet, the soil will become open and porous 
in the^ run of a few years, as deep as the tile are laid. The roots of 
the most of our farm crops will penetrate as deep as possible in 
quest of plant food and moisture. Practically, our crops will be 
drawing their food and moisture from a farm underneath our farm. 
Thorough underdrainage .serves to conserve moisture in the soil 
for the use of farm crops — by condensing moisture from the air and 
holding it for the use of the crops — by condensing, we mean that 
the air in circulating through an open soil at the depth named above, 
comes in contact with the cooler earth and the moisture forms on 
the particles of soil the same as dew on vegetation. In time of 
extreme drouths, deeply underdrained land will be found moist a 
foot or so below the surface and the growing crops will show but 
little damage from the drouth. 

The circulation of the air through the drained soil eftects chem- 
ical changes of much importance in the preparation of the plant food. 
There is a vast store of fertility deep in the earth but for want of 
air it is in an insoluble condition, the plants cannot use it until the 



26 5*0^7 Protection and Soil Improvement 

air, heat and moisture make it soluble and available as plant food 
and underdrainage brings this about, thus adding to the available 
fertility of the soil. 

Underdrainage also makes the manures and fertilizers applied to 
the soil contribute more freely to the betterment of the soil by taking 
the liquids into the soil, and also prevents largely, the surface w^ash- 
ing, by M-hich such vast stores of fertility are lost never to return. 

Saving and ^^ important feature in the increase of fertility 

Applying Manures, is the saving of manures — plan to save them and 
apply them in the most bene5cial manner. 
Shedded barn lots and shelters to cover manures until they are spread 
on the land will add much to the quality saved and the better fertility. 

Crop Rotation Each crop grown on the farm draws upon the needed 
supply of plant food in the soil. Hence if one kind 
of crop is grown for a long time upon the same piece of land, the 
soil at length becomes exhausted of those kinds of plant foods upon 
which that crop feeds. 

The benefit of crop rotation may be briefly summarized as fol- 
lows : 

First. It economizes the natural supplies of fertility contained 
in the soil. 

Second. It economizes applied manures by making use in due 
time of all their fertilizing ingredients. 

Third. It tends to the enrichment of the surface soil in that 
some plants, for example, beans, peas, etc., draw large supplies of 
plant food from the air and others as clovers, draw their food deep 
down in the sub-soil. Then the rootlets decay and add to the fer- 
tility and better soil conditions mechanically. Other crops may draw 
their food supply from nearer the surface of the soil and then the 
rootlets decay and thus equalize the benefits to the different depths 
of soil. 

The following rotation finds favor with most successful farmers : 
Corn, wheat and clover. Other rotations may be better suited to the 
conditions of the soil, climate and market. We insist that as a rule 
crop rotation adapted to the existing conditions will aid much in 
increasing the fertility of the soil. In this connection, let us take 
into consideration the 

Deeper Plowing If something like a uniform depth has been followed 
Better Tillage. i" the breaking of the land for years and the sub- 
soil is possessed of more or less fertility, though in 
an insoluble condition, deeper breaking should be done, but the in- 
crease in depth should be gradual from year to year. The sub-soil 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 27 

should be brought to the surface in small quantities at a time. As 
a rule it is better to plow deeper in the Autumn than in the Spring, 
for the reason that the weather during the winter will have a bene- 
ficial effect upon the new soil. It is better to sow some kind of cover 
crop in the fall, to prevent washing and to work into the soil in the 
Spring. 

The preparation of the soil should be thorough before planting — ■ 
the better the seed bed the better the crop. The cultivation of the 
crop should be frequent as the needs of the soil may indicate — keep 
in mind that the stirring of the soil is to give a circulation of air 
through it, to aid in making the fertility available to the plant growth 
and to prevent the escape of moisture at the surface, where evapora- 
tion takes place. 

Each rainfall will likely cause crust to form on the surface ; this 
should be broken as soon as the soil is dry enough to stir, and the 
surface should be made fine and mellow or mulched as it is commonly 
expressed. Avoid root pruning, or the breaking of the fibrous roots 
as much as possible, continue to cultivate as long as the stirring of 
the soil will promote the growth and the further development of 
the crop products. 

Growing Clover and This is an important factor in the increase of 
Other Legume Crops ^oi\ fertility. In the crop rotation clover should 
be included. It is a deep feeder, having a tap 
root that is often found at a depth of three or four feet. This plant 
has the power of bringing fertility up to the surface and in addition 
the power to take free nitgroen from the air, through the nodules or 
bacteria on the roots. The same is true of other legume plants, such 
as beans, peas, vetches, etc. The turning of a crop of green clover 
or cow peas or soy beans into the soil will increase the humus and 
at the same time add to the fertility and aid nitrification, in preparing 
plant food. 

My grandfather, J. J. W. Billingsley, was an authority on many 
agronomical subjects and his notebook containing his lectures is one 
of my proud possessions. On the subject of "Growing Clover on the 
Farm," he wrote (in part), as follows: 

"In the year 1864, the writer purchased a well worn farm, and 
wishing to increase the fertility, I sowed over 100 acres of the land 
in wheat, intending to seed it afterwards to clover and did so. One 
field in particular was much poorer than the others although^all of 
the land was originally good, but fifty years of crop production and 
washing of the surface, with no return of fertility had pretty well 
used up all the fertility near the surface. The average yield of wheat 
on the field in question was nine bushels, the stand of clover secured 
was fairly good, and made a good growth after the wheat was cut. 



WET FIELDS ARE WASTE LAND. 




Drowned out. burned out Indiana oat field. This undrained field 
stays wet a long time in the spring; is swampy and soggy after rains 
and gets hard as bricks in dry weather. The crops are small, late and 
patchy, sometimes not at all. 




Wheat, over the fence trying to grow in a water-logged field. It 
is winter killed or frozen out in spots and all of it crippled by heaving. 

These flat, wet fields will never grow winter wheat, clover or 
alfalfa with certainty until they are drained. 




I. 









It is one big job of waste trying to grow corn or any other crop 
on a wet spot. Wet fields have time, labor and fertilizer spent on 
them which are always partially, sometimes totally lost. 

There is no more discouraging task on earth than undertaking to 
grow crops on fields like these. They can be drained and made pro- 
ductive and profitable where now they are a loss, an aggravation and 
an eyesore. — Courtesy International Harvester Co. 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 29 



The season following, the clover was allowed to grow until full head 
and then some cattle were turned on it, and allowed to graze two 
weeks or more, tramping the clover down. The cattle were then 
turned off and the second growth of clover came on and when at 
the point of maturing the seed, the clover was turned under, which 
included much of the first growth, as well as the second. 

"The land was then seeded to wheat and made a yield of 27 
bushels, and was seeded to clover again and then to wheat, which 
yielded 31 bushels to the acre and was cropped for years with a crop 
rotation of corn, wheat and clover, growing good crops. 

"By using clover in the crop rotation indicated on other fields 
the same gratifying results were secured. It was not long until 
many other people judged the farm to be the most productive in 
that section of the country. This is not theory but just what I 
have done and what any of you can do and what many of you pos- 
sibly have done. 

"When the land is new and full of vegetable matter it is com- 
paratively easy to get a stand by sowing the seed on wheat, the last 
of February or in March, when the surface is heaved up by frost, 
sowing about one bushel of good seed on eight acres. 

"After the land has been in cultivation forty or fifty years the 
crops taken off, and the land pastured bare, and then washed by the 
rainfalls from year to year, it is difficult to get a stand of clover. 
I have succeeded in getting a stand fairly well by waiting until 
about the first of April or until the soil will pulverize a little, then 
go over the field with a fine tooth smoothing harrow, making a little 
mulch on the surface. It was necessary to weight the harrow a little 
to do good work. I then sowed the seed both ways, with a wheel 
barrel seeder and in this way got a uniform stand. After sowing 
the seed, I went over the field lightly again with the harrow. I have 
not failed to get a stand in this way of seeding. After the fly put 
in an appearance I have not grown any wheat but have succeeded 
quite as well in getting a stand of clover, sowing with oats as fol- 
lows : I prepare the land well by breaking, disking and harrowing. 
Then drill in the oats one bushel or at most a bushel and one peck 
to the acre, and then sow one bushel of clover seed to six acres, 
sowing both ways, about one-half of the seed at each time going 
over the ground, and then go over the ground with a light smoothing 
harrow or better, a Breeds weeder. In this way I have succeeded 
in getting a good stand of clover. The oats are sowed thin to let 
the sun shine down through the oats on the clover to harden it. 
The oats being thin on the ground, do not draw so heavily upon the 
moisture in the soil, which is especially true when the oats come to 
ripen up, and are heavy, they leave little moisture in the soil for 
the clover after the oats are cut and heavy oats shade the clover 



30 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 

and make it tender and the soil left dry by the ripening of the oats, 
the plants perish, 

"With thin sowing of the oats and careful seeding of the clover 
we get a good stand and a fair crop of oats. The thin sowing of 
the oats will grow larger heads and a better grain and make a fair 
yield. If the land is comparatively free from weed seeds and well 
prepared for seeding a good stand of clover may be secured by sowing 
clover without any nurse crop. 

"After cutting the wheat or the oats and the clover grows up 
to be ten inches or a foot high, run the mower over it, setting the 
bar as much as four inches high to cut the clover and stubble and 
the cuttings drop down on the ground it will add to the fertility of 
the soil and cover the ground and make the clover grow better. If 
the season is favorable for growth, it will need to be cut again not 
later than September IStli. Do not pasture young clover, if so, the 
loss will be heavy in the future of the crop and to the fertility of 
the soil. 

"In the selection of the seed be sure to get round plump seed 
the very best the market afifords, free from weed seeds and faulty 
seeds. The good seeds will germinate and grow a strong, vigorous 
plant and the poorer seed will have many seed that will not germi- 
nate and the seeds that do grow may grow weakly plants, besides 
the weed seeds are likely to introduce pests, that are not easily 
exterminated. 

"Prepare the soil well, sow only good seed and sow evenly and 
afterward cover lightly and there will be little trouble about getting 
a good stand. 

Kinds of Clover. "My experience in growing clover has been limited 
to growing what is commonly known as red clover, 
with two exceptions. Red clover has apparently met all the demands 
which have been made upon it. For grazing stock, for hay, seed 
and fertilizer power, live stock of all kinds do well when turned to 
clover with care and a little salt. The hay when well cured is ex- 
cellent and the seed crop, we have all heard, depends on the 'bumble 
bee.' 

"Mammoth clover is more rank in its growth, shades the land 
better, perhaps matures a few days later, it is claimed, but makes 
a poor hay, and matures its seed in the first and only cutting for the 
season. 

"Alsike clover is said to be especially adapted to wet land, or to 
overflow bottoms. Alsike will grow on land too wet to plow and 
it is claimed that it will aid in the drying up such land. It is said 
to make good pasture and an excellent quality of hay. It is further 
claimed that it will survive the severest cold without winter killing. 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



31 




;»^-*ti?.?-^iasK.' 




Red clover is Lliu muat practical Irguiuc lor ordinary farm use in Indiana 



The successful growth of clover or other legumin- 
ous crops is an essential factor in maintaining the fer- 
tility of most Indiana soils. Legumes are soil reno- 
vators in a marked degree and may be very profitably 
employed in building up run-down soils. Without 
legumes, the problems of maintaining adequate sup- 
plies of organic matter and nitrogen in soils are diffi- 
cult; with legumes, they are simple. 

To produce maximum crops, the ordinary soils of 
the State should bear clover or some other legume at 
least once every three or four years and most of the 
produce should go back to the land in one form or an- 
other. In a rotation of corn, wheat and clover, averag- 
ing 60 bushels of corn, 25 bushels of wheat and two 
tons of clover hay to the acre, where the corn stalks 
and second growth clover are left on the ground, the 
wheat grain sold, the ear corn, clover hay and wheat 
straw utilized as feed and bedding and the manure 
carefully saved and returned to the land, the nitrogen 
balance in the soil will be just about maintained. — Pur- 
due University Agricultural Experiment Station. 



32 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 

"Alfalfa, according to a large number of successful farmers, is 
ranked in first place in the clover family." 

More Land to Grass. As a rule, we have too much land in cultiva- 
tion, too much in corn, especially those who are 
cultivating 45 or 60 acres in corn, might do quite as well to put their 
thought and labor on half that area with quite as good results in the 
amount of the product grown, and the fertility of the soil, and turn 
the other half to clover, red or alfalfa, and blue grass. By so doing 
they could rapidly increase the fertility and make quite as much 
money. 

More Live Stock. You can turn your farm crops into beef, pork, mut- 
ton, wool, milk and butter for market, if you keep 
livestock. In selling such products you would sell the least possible 
fertility, and have the means at hand of returning to the soil more 
than you take from it in the way of fertility. 

Mr. Walthers, of Brookville, Ind., in a conversation with the 
writer, made the following statement which is apropos at this point 

"The farmer nowadays who farms simply for the crops never 
gets rich. Feed and stock farming is the thing, for through the stock 
you secure the manure for enriching your land which will make 3^our 
crops larger and better and they in turn make for better cattle and 
stock bringing the topnotch figures." 

The Walther brothers buy in the spring, summer and fall, when 
they find good feeding steers or calves, and take them to the farm, 
where they fatten them up for the market. Large profits are made 
in this way. They are now raising 250 hogs, 200 ewes, more than 
100 lambs and 172 cattle. The feeding capacity of their barns is 
350 head of cattle. They aim to put in about eighty to ninety-pound 
shoats. The shoats follow the cattle. When they begin to ship the 
cattle they feed the hogs lightly and then after the cattle are gone 
they give the hogs forty days of good feeding. The hogs are fed 
on corn and feed tankage. 

The sheep are fed on ensilage, clover, hay, oats and corn. After 
the ewes have lambs they begin to feed them the grain. The cattle 
are fed on ensilage and cotton seed meal and corn, and after this 
is cleaned up they get clover and alfalfa hay. 

The brothers have not had any trouble with cholera and have 
not vaccinated any hogs in five years. It is all in the method of 
taking care of them, they say. 

The cattle are taken out to water in a concrete paved yard just 
outside the cattle barn and permitted to stay there for two hours. 
There is a central feed-way running the length of the cattle barn in 
direct line with two large silos at the west end of this 102x42-foot 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



ZZ 



structure. An overhead carrier system conveys the car of ensilage 
or feed to the point desired. The accompanying lloor plan of the 
barn shows clearly the arrangement. 

Barn Is Well Arranged. One of the leading men of the agricultural 

department of Purdue University, after in- 
specting this barn with a class of students, declared that it was the 
handiest, yet inexpensive, barn he had ever seen. It has an ideal 
arrangement; there are no retracing of steps, no lost motion. The 
materials are handled in direct lines and every foot of space is ac- 
counted for. The two silos at the north end of the barn have a 
capacity of 140 tons each. The overhead track and carrier leads 




Horse (^ 

5TABI-E ^ ' 






Driveway 

IN BARN 

Corn CutTEK-^^ 



7 ~r ' ^^^^ 



^ \_ V.f KM KKWbX 



C 



M 



OPEN 

Shed 



Omtue a^vd hOG-6 



iTTTm 



l lllll 



ri iiriiiiinn i Min i mi i i iiiliiruiifniTT 



Cattle . Cattle ArioHo&s 
exercise: yard 



Plan of Walther Bros. Barn. 

dircctl}' to the doors of the silos, so the carrier may be filled with 
ensilage or a feed from the stockroom as is desired and the stock fed 
at any point along the 102 feet of track. On the west of the feedway 
are ha}'^ racks extending the entire length, while on the east is the 
same arrangement from the south of the barn to the storeroom. 

Above the spaces where the cattle and hogs are bedded is a straw 
mow. The straw is blown in through a door on the east side at the 
time of threshing, doing away with straw stacks and the loss incident 
to stacking. When the cattle are turned out to water and exercise 
fresh straw is thrown down from the mow and spread over the ac- 
cumulated manure. When the doors are opened again for the cattle 
to return much laughter is pro^■oked by the way they kick up their 
hoofs and frisk about in the clean straw. The hogs are permitted 



34 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



to run wild in these spaces and out into the open shed where ears 
of corn are tossed to them from time to time. 

Corn Cutter Is Used. The corn crib is in the central north part of 

the barn in the storeroom. This crib holds 
5,000 bushels. A corn cutter is stationed adjacent to it in the drive- 
way of the barn. This machine cuts 100 bushels an hour. The drive- 
way is wide and gives ample room for bringing in the loads of hay, 
corn, etc. A large track and hay fork with automatic trip is used 
in filling the mows on either side of this driveway. There is not a 
beam in either mow, the roof being self-supporting and thirty-two 
feet from the main floor to the center. The mows have a capacity 
of 150 tons. 

On the east side of the driveway are the granaries and the store- 
room for corn for the horses which are housed a few feet away, the 
horse stable and granaries being separated by a feedway. 

INDIANA SOILS NEED PHOSPHATES 

Indiana soils are notably deficient in phosphorus 

Available phosphates are the most profitable fer- 
tilizers. 

Acid phosphate has given the best results. 

Basic slag and steamed bone meal have also given 
good results, standing next to acid phosphate in profit- 
ableness. 

Rock phosphate has given good results in certain 
cases, although it has been the least profitable of any of 
the phosphates used. 

In immediate returns on the first and second crops 
after application, acid phosphate has yielded crop in- 
creases from three to over 25 times as large as those 
secured from rock phosphate. 

Neither acid phosphate nor any other phosphate 
will increase soil acidity or the need for liming, al- 
though soils needing phosphorus generally also need 
lime. 

Neither acid phosphate nor any other phosphate 
will injure the physical condition of the soil if due care 
is exercised to maintain the organic matter supply. 

The only means by which the phosphorus defi- 
ciency can be made up is by the purchase and applica- 
tion of phosphatic fertilizers. Fortunately phosphatic 
fertilizer materials are plentiful in this country and 
relatively cheap. 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 35 



Near the barn is a pumphouse with a gasoline engine and pump 
beloAv the ground level, so there is never any danger of freezing. 

On the east of the court surrounding the barn are the sheep barn, 
toolhouse and wagon shed. A brick house stands to the north. 

Making Best Use of Under this caption Prof. G. I. Christie, of the 

Commercial Fertilizers. Experiment Station, Purdue University, gave 

some valuable information in the Indiana 
Farmers' Guide of Nov. 5th, 1921. In part it was as follows : 

"* * * Fertilizers are bought for the plant foods, — the nitrogen, 
the phosphoric acid and the potash, that they contain. The mere 
price per ton means nothing unless the percentages of the various 
plant foods are known and considered. The desire of many farmers 
to secure cheap fertilizer is largely responsible for many low analysis 
brands that have been put on the market. Such fertilizers are un- 
desirable in every way. Fortunately most manufacturers are willing, 
in fact anxious, to stop selling low-analysis goods, thus giving the 
farmer more for his money and at the same time making more money 
for themselves. The saving in freight, in bags, in storage space, and 

RECOMMENDATIONS 

1. Adopt a systematic rotation of crops, including 
clover or some other legume at least once every three 
or four years. 

2. Wherever clover fails to do well, apply two 
or more tons of ground limestone to the acre. 

3. See that the land is properly drained and prac- 
tice good tillage methods. 

4. Feed as much of the produce as possible and 
carefully conserve and return to the land the manure 
produced, as well as any unused crop residues. 

5. Apply from 150 to 200 pounds per acre of acid 
phosphate or some other available phosphate to each 
grain crops in the rotation. In a permanent system, 
where manure is applied for corn, enough phosphate 
for the whole rotation may be most conveniently ap- 
plied when seeding wheat or oats. Under certain sys- 
tems of farming, where the crops are not all fed on the 
farm, it will pay, under normal conditions, to add some 
nitrogen and potash in the fertilizer. 

6. If acid phosphate or other available phosphate 
cannot be secured, a mixed fertilizer as high as possible 
is available phosphoric acid should be used. — Purdue 
University Agricultural Experiment Station, 



36 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 

in handling will be large both to the manufacturer and to the farmer. 
* * * The state chemist estimates that if Indiana farmers will buy 
only high-grade fertilizers they can save themselves $1,000,000 a year. 
Surely this problem is worth some careful thought and figuring. The 
results of inspection the past year show that 23,439 more tons of 
high-grade and 34,792 less tons of low-grade fertilizers were bought 
in 1920 than in 1919. * * * 

The cjuality of the nitrogen or ammonia in fertilizers is now 
receiving considerable attention from the state chemist. Here, again, 
the advantage of buying high-analysis formulas is shown, for when the 
per cent of ammonia is low there is a greater likelihood of its being 
derived from low-grade materials and, therefore, less available than 
when the ammonia content is higher, let us say, 2 per cent or more. 
Fertilizers containing a small amount of ammonia, for example, one- 
half per cent or 1 per cent, may be made from the very best materials 
but this is frec|uently not the case. So when you buy fertilizers con- 
taining ammonia, the safest plan is to select one that contains at 
least 2 per cent of ammonia which is the same as 1.6 per cent of 
nitrogen. 

Perhaps the biggest step forward in the direction of better fer- 
tilizers for Indiana was made when the Purdue soils and crops depart- 
ment published its list of standard fertilizer formulas for Indiana. 
Our investigations reported in previous articles show that about a 
dozen different formulas will meet all the fertilizer needs of our prin- 
cipal crops and soils. These formulas have been selected as the result 
of many years of experimenting with all kinds of fertilizers under all 
sorts of conditions. They are based on the composition of the soil, 
the needs of the particular crop and the practice in regard to the 
use of manure and the growing of legumes. These approved formulas 
are given in full on page 37. 

Now suppose you have a light-colored clay loam soil and that 
you grow clover in a rotation with corn and wheat. Wq will assume 
that 3^ou use all the manure produced on the corn ground and that 
you have enough to cover about half the corn acreage. What fer- 
tilizer should you use? The answer from the table would be an 
0-12-4 on corn without manure, and 16 per cent acid phosphate with 
manure. For wheat the recommendation would be a 2-12-2 complete 
fertilizer. (In the fertilizer formula the first figure refers to nitrogen, 
the second to phosphoric acid, the third to potash.) 

Having determined the right fertilizer to use, the next question 
to be decided is that of the amount to apply per acre. This depends 
upon the climate, the natural fertility of the soil, and the crop. Where 
the rainfall is plentiful and well distributed, much larger applications 
can be used profitably than where the rainfall is light and summer 
droughts more frecjuent. As a general rule soils that have been 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



37 






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38 Soil Protection and Soil hnprovcmcnt 



farmed for many years respond more profitably to heavy applications 
of fertilizer than newer soils, although, of course, there are many ex- 
ceptions to this rule. The crop itself is perhaps the biggest factor 
to be considered in deciding on the right amount of fertilizer to apply. 
Intensive crops, that is, those having a high acre value, such as to- 
matoes, onions, potatoes, cabbage, etc., will nearly always pay a good 
profit on heavier applications than could be made to corn and small 
grains. For the latter, the best amount will probably be somewhere 
between 200 pounds and 400 pounds per acre, while for the intensive 
crops the range will more than likely be from 500 to 1,000 pounds 
per acre. * * *'' 

Lime for Acid Soils. Lime is a most helpful material for the correc- 
tion of soil acidity, providing the land is prop- 
erly underdraincd. A failure in getting a good stand of clover is 
either due to lack of proper drainage or to the fact that the soil is 
too acid. The appearance of red sorrel in the field is a sure indication 
of acid in the soil. A very simple test will prove whether or not your 
soil is acid. Pick up a handful of moist soil, open it up and insert a 
piece of litmus paper (can be purchased at any drug store), press 
the soil together again and after fifteen or twenty minutes open it up 
and remove the litmus paper. If the paper has turned pink or has 
pinkish spots the soil is acid. 

Prof. A. T. Wiancko, of the Department of Soils and Crops, Pur- 
due University Experimental Station, in a bulletin on lime for acid 
soils, sa}' s in part : 

"Much of the soil of Indiana is more or less acid or 'sour' and 
in need of liming before other efforts at soil improvement can give 
the best results. If the soil is acid neither manures for fertilizers, 
good cultivation, drainage, nor any other helpful treatment can give 
the best results. Clover and other legumes, which are among the 
most potent factors in building up soil fertility, cannot develop prop- 
erly in acid soils, and when this condition is bad they will refuse to 
grow at all. The most favorable bacterial and bio-chemical activi- 
ties in the soil, which make plant food available, are hindered and 
may be completely stopped by acidity. 

"Every soil that is not behaving properly should be tested for 
acidity, and if found to be acid, some form of lime, preferably 
ground limestone, should be applied. If not acid, some other con- 
dition is wrong. It may need draining, it may be lacking in organic 
matter and in poor physical condition, or it may be lacking in one 
or more plant food elements. 

"It is not possible to make any definite statement as to the kinds 
of soil that are in need of liming. Both sour and sweet soils may 
be found in the same neighborhood or in the same soil type. Many 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



39 



soils were originally sweet but through years of cropping and through 
the leaching of lime compounds out of them have become acid; others 
have been kept in good condition, while some were sour to begin with 
and never have produced good crops. 

"During the last four years over 3,000 soil samples from all over 
the state have been tested for acidity in the laboratory of the Soils 
and Crop department of the Experiment Station. Eighty per cent of 
these samples were more or less acid, and the indications are that 
every county in the State contains thousands of acres of land that 
would show excellent results from liming. 

Lime Not A Fertilizer "It has been pointed out that acid soils must 

be limed before other treatments can give the 
best results, but it should be remembered that lime is not a fertilizer. 




Effect of Ground Limestone on Acid Soil. Tills land was acid and 
would not produce clover^ The strip on the right was limed and has a 
perfect stand of clover. The strip on the left was not limed and has no 
clover. 

It contains neither nitrogen, phosphoric acid nor potash, and cannot 
take the place of either of these indispensable plant foods. 

"The principal reason for liming the soil is to neutralize soil 
acidity and improve the conditions for the growth of legumes. 
Legumes can then be used to supply the needed nit'-ogen, which they 
can get from the air, but the phosphoric acid and potash must all 
come from the soil, and if the supplies in the soil are deficient they 
must be replenished by the use of manures or fertilizers. 

"After the land has been limed and put into condition to re- 



40 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 

spond to other good treatment, the nitrogen and organic matter sup- 
plies can be taken care of by returning the manure made from the 
crops fed, and the crop residues that are not fed or used for bed- 
ding and making liberal use of legumes in the crop rotation. On 
most Indiana soils the phosphorus supply is already too low, so that 
as much of this element as is removed from the land in crops should 
be returned in manures and fertilizers. In the case of potash, most 
of our soils contain abundance for all crop needs, but often it does 
not become available fast enough. If, however, a good physical 
condition is maintained and a good system of crop rotation is prac- 
ticed and the soil is kept supplied with lime and plenty of decom- 
posable organic matter there will be little need for purchasing pot- 
ash on ordinary soils in cases where the crops are fed and the ma- 
nure returned to the land. The muck soils, however, are very de- 
ficient in potash and the needs of crops must be supplied from out- 
side sources. The peaty sands and the lighter sandy soils also need 
potash fertilizers to maintain profitable crop yields regardless of 
liming." 

Soils of Indiana. The soil map on the opposite page shows in a 
rough way the various soil groups found in Indiana. 
The soils are cla}^ loam, reddish brown, yellow, whitish and grey 
clay, muck, silt, black sandy, gravelly and light sandy with local 
areas of muck. There are various combinations of these but there 
is a general run of certain types of soils in the belts as outlined in 
the map. Different soils need different treatment, some are acid and 
need lime and phosphate, some require more fertilizer than others, 
some are high in organic matter while others are low in same, some 
are acid and low in organic matter, others are acid and high in organic 
matter, others are only slightly acid and low or high in organic mat- 
ter, as the case may be. Some need all the available materials in 
varying proportions, others need only the application of one or two. 
About one-third the soils of the State are acid but 90 per cent of 
all of our soils need acid phosphate. Large areas are in need of 
potash and nitrogen as well. Only about 8 per cent of the crop 
acreage is growing clover, an insignificant percentage in consideration 
of the amount of land that should be growing clover and other legume 
crops to give nitrogen, open up the soil and give it air space that 
will assist the tile in their good work. 

Clay Loam Soils. The greatest proportion of clay loam soils in In- 
diana are located in the central and northern parts. 
Not all of the soils in the area indicated are clay loam soils for there 
are other types of soil found in the lake region of Northern Indiana 
and also along streams such as sandy soils and local areas of muck, 
but the large majority of soils covering nearly half of Indiana are 



Soil Protecfion and Soil Improvement 



41 



clay loam soils. These were very fertile in their virgin state, but 
many have been cropped so long without correct rotataion that they 
are not yielding the grain they would be capable of if proper appli- 
cation of correct farm practice were made. The prairie soils found 
in the west central counties are usually abundantly supplied with 
nitrogen and organic matter although many of the soils are in need 
of phosphate. The other portion of the clay loam belt was in the 




Soil- Map 
Jnoiana 

MUCK, Slack 5audy Soils 

CLftY LOAM Soils 
■■y.\ L»GHT S^Nt)Y Soils ARCW OP MtHu< 
^^ Slash Lands oaWttire Cm^y "boxes. 
P^ Koi.Lir*& Ci-AV \>PUAN05. 
I I Uhclaciateo Hi»-l. L-/^NDS. 



past generally heavily timbered and this type is usually low in nitro- 
gen and organic matter and acid in varying degree, hence requiring 
both lime and phosphate. The growing of legume crops in crop 
rotation with wheat and corn would be beneficial. The application of 
two tons of ground limestone or its equivalent is considered by Prof. 
Christie to be sufficient to correct the acidity of acid clay loam soils 
which contain enough aluminum compounds to require lime and 



42 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



phosphate to render harmless the poisonous nature of these com- 
pounds. 

In speaking of the remedy to be applied to the large acreage of 
clay loam soils which are acid and low in organic matter, Prof. 
Christie states : 

"This soil needs, first of all, at least two tons per acre of ground 
limestone which may be applied at any convenient time during the 
rotation and it can be applied either before or after breaking the land. 
But liming is only one step in the improvement of these soils. Plant 
food and organic matter must also be added. Manure gives excellent 
results but crops must be grown and fed before manure can be grown 
and fed before manure can be produced. Moreover, unless concen- 
trated feeds are purchased in considerable amounts, manure can not 
add plant food. By using Hme, available phosphorous and potash on 
corn and complete fertilizers on wheat the yields will be brought up 
to a profitable level in the shortest possible time and good crops 
of clover can be grown. Bigger crops mean more organic matter 
either as manure or crop residues, such as straw or cornstalks, and 
more plant food and lime where needed mean bigger crops. Scores 
of farm demonstrations conducted by county agents during the last 
few years have shown the great value of this plan of soil improve- 
ment." 

Unglaciated Hill Lands. A triangular area embracing the counties of 

Monroe, Brown, Lawrence, Crawford, Martin, 
Orange, Perry, Harrison, Spencer, Warwick, DuBois, Washington and 
portions of Pike, Gibson, Vanderburg, Jackson and Clark, is known 
as the Unglaciated Hill Lands of Indiana. As the name implies the 
soils found there were not aft'ected by any glacial action in prehis- 
toric days and remain about the same as they were in the olden 
days, being residual soils affected only by the elements, wind and 
water. The soils are not altogether alike in this section although 
most of them are of a reddish brown color. Some are brown or 
yellowish brown, others yellow and still others grey. Some of the 
soil is quite like the yellow clay soils of the rolling clay uplands 
adjoining this section on the west and the whitish yellow clay soils 
of the slash land belt on the east. Most of these Southern Indiana 
soils are silt loam. They are acid in varying degree, the subsoil 
being more acid than the surface soils as a general rule and needs 
drainage first then the application of lime and phosphate. 

Experiments by the Purdue University Experimental Station on 
their plot near Bedford, Lawrence County, prove that these soils 
require liberal applications of lime, acid phosphate and manures. 
Prof. Christie advocates four tons of ground limestone, 300 pounds 
of 16 per cent acid phosphate and six tons of manure to the acre. 
Experiments showed that the untreated soil is very unproductive, 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 43 

that the application of manure was very valuable, but without the 
use of lime and acid phosphates crops cannot be grown to produce 
the manure needed. 

The Slash Lands. That section of the State covering the southern 
eastern corner of the State, extending through 
Franklin, Dearborn, Ohio and Switzerland Counties to the Ohio River 
and west into and covering all of Jefferson, Jennings and Scott, the 
southern portion of Decatur, eastern part of Jackson and upper east- 
ern Clark County, is known as the slash lands, consisting prin- 
cipally of silt and white clay. This is sometimes called white clay 
land and also crawfish land. The soil in the section is the most uni- 
form in the State and has been farmed longer than any other section 
of Indiana. On undrained soils the chimneys of the crawfish are 
much in evidence, standing six to eight inches high. 

This is a soil decidedly in need of drainage, lime, fertilizer and 
manure. In its original state, it is almost valueless, especially that 
portion extending through Franklin, Ripley and Dearborn Coun- 
ties, the oak timber formerly found there was the real incentive for 
the locating of settlements there in the early days. With the deple- 
tion of the timber, farming was very unsatisfactory until correct 
farm practices were instituted. The experimental plots located at 
Scottsburg, Scott County, North Vernon, Jennings County, and New 
Point in Decatur County, showed that the undrained land would not 
grow satisfactory crops and without lime it was too acid to grow 
clover. The land thoroughly tile underdrained and given four tons 
of ground limestone, 200 pounds of acid phosphate and six tons of 
manure to the acre, produced the best results with great increase 
in crop yields. These experiments also proved acid phosphates to 
be far superior to rock phosphates. One experimental field showed 
a gain of 24 bushels of corn and 416 pounds of clover hay per acre 
for drained land in comparison with undrained land proving that 
drainage is the first and all important step. Crop rotation including 
clover and use of lime and fertilizer are essential. 

The Rolling The rolling clay uplands extending along the Wabash 

Clay Uplands. River and embracing the Counties of Vigo, Clay, Sul- 
livan, Knox and the greater part of Gibson, Posey, 
Pike, Daviess, Greene and Owens, consist of yellow or greyish clay 
with the exception of the river or creek bottom lands where foreign 
soils have been brought down from the clay loam region. The rolling 
clay uplands are acid and require not only drainage and lime but 
also phosphate and nitrogen since they are deficient in both phos- 
phorous and nitrogen. 

The results of experiments on the Purdue field at Worthington, 
Greene County, where the soil is grey silt loam and similar to rolling 



44 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 

upland of several counties, farmed for many years decidedly "run 
down," subsoil more acid than surface soil but not nearly as sour as 
the "slashland" or "hog prairie" of Northwestern Indiana, showed 
that where no treatment was given, corn yielded 32.7 bushels, wheat 
9.7 and clover hay 2,398 pounds per acre, but with addition of six 
tons of manure increase was worth $26.93 with crops at present prices. 
The increase from lime and manure was $30.80 each rotation, but 
where acid phosphate was used on corn crop in addition to lime and 
manure, the 3aelds were further increased by $15.67. Potash used in 
addition to lime, manure and acid phosphate also showed gain. The 
proper treatment for this type of soil seems to be tile underdrainage 
then two tons ground limestone, six tons of manure and 200 pounds 
of acid phosphate on each corn crop, and 200 pounds of 0-8-4 fertilizer 
on each crop of wheat. 

Muck and Sandy Soils In the valley of the Kankakee River, extend- 
ing through Newton, Jasper, Pulaski, Stark, 
St. Joseph and Elkhart Counties, also touching portions of Lake, 
Porter, LaPorte and White Counties, as well as the shore line of Lake 
Michigan, there are numbers of soils differing greatly in make-up, 
more so than in any other belt in the State with sand, muck, gravel 
and clay intermingling in varying proportions. These soils are pecu- 
liar to themselves and we find where formerly the mosquito, the frog 
and fowls of the swamp lands thrived and cat-tails and wild growths 
were the chief plant life, since the area has been drained many rich 
farm lands have been built up, growing a great variety of products. 
There are onion fields growing 700 bushels to the acre, peppermint 
and spearmint fields with valuable yields, farms devoted almost 
entirely to the raising of sunflowers or truck farms, in fact intensive 
farming has been going on there for many years past. Onions, pep- 
permint, potataoes and truck and vegetable crops are grown on the 
muck land, alfalfa, cowpeas, rye and cucumbers are raised success- 
fully on the lighter soils while corn and small grains thrive on the 
lands containing proportions of clay. Experiments by the Purdue 
Experimental Station showed that potash fertilizers were very neces- 
sary for these soils often doubling and trebling the yields of corn, 
potatoes and onions. Available phosphate also added to the value 
of the crops. Only a few patches of muck land are acid so that as 
a general rule the use of lime on muck soils is not necessary but the 
black sandy soils found on parts of LaPorte and Porter Counties also 
spots in Starke, Pulaski, Jasper, Lake and St. Joseph, known as "hog 
prairie" soil, are very acid and lacking in lime and phosphates. 

Experiments at Wanatah, Laporte County, on corn, oats and 
wheat showed that corn on untreated lands made from 1 to 18 bushels 
but the addition of four tons of limestone and 400 pounds of 2-10-8 
fertilizer per acre the yield went as high as 59 bushels per acre. A 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement • 45 



forty-acre field of same soil gave a yield of 70.7 bushels per acre 
in 1911 three years after lime and fertilizer had been applied. J. A. 
Warren near Kouts, Laporte, County, raised 127 bushels of corn 
per acre in 1920. There are yellow sandy soils, sandy soils with some 
organic matter and other soils with proportion of gravel, found in 
this belt. Complete fertilizer containing a large amount of potash 
is very beneficial to these soils as well as frequent application of 
lime and the growing of legume crops. 

The Purdue University Agricultural Experiment Station through 
its excellent corps of experts, its experimental plots and the county 
agents is doing a splendid work in the study and the dissemination 
of knowledge regarding the needs of our soils. If your soil is not 
producing bumper crops better see the county agent or send a sample 
of your soil to Purdue with the request for information regarding 
the exact requirements of your soil. Follow the suggestions given 
and you will profit greatly thereby and it will help in the advancement 
of our agriculture. 



46 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



TILE UNDERDRAINAGE 



The Real Basis of Improved Farming Conditions Resulting in 

Amassed Wealth of the Large Majority of Our Progressive 

Farmers Is Underdrainage, It Not Only Protects and 

Improves Fertility But Gives You a Second 

Farm Under Your Present Farm You 

Could Not Otherwise Use. 



Underdrainage is defined as the art of removing from the soil 
and subsoil any excess water that would likely interfere with its sea- 
sonable preparation for sowing or planting farm crops or retard or 
injure their growth and development. Within the following pages 
we prove that it is not a new idea but a matter thoroughly practical 
and necessary in increasing the productivity of the land and that tile 
underdrainage assures among many the following advantages : Re- 
moval of excess water, prevention of loss of soil fertility, and the cor- 
rect preparation of the soil, making it more productive, drouth resist- 
ing, easier to cultivate and permitting of an earlier planting. 

Drainage for agricultural purposes antedates Christianity. We 
have proof of this in the writing of Columella, an agricultural writer, 
who lived in the reign of Augustus and Tiberius. 

A Little of We also find reference to underdrainage in Cato, Varro 
Its History and Virgil proving conclusively that drain tile were 

used in those olden days in farm drainage. The an- 
cient Romans used clay pipes as conduits for water, evidence of this 
and also the fact that the people in lower Austria, Saxony and other 
countries used a similar system of conduits by clay pipes can be 
found in some of the cultivated fields today. So we may safely say 
that clay pipes of tile were used in drainage work even before Christ. 
They were presumably the invention of the Romans. 

Another statement that will perhaps interest the farmers of today, 
touching on the value of clay tile in drainage work is found in an 
article written in 1880 by G. Harnow, a Member of the Agricultural 
Society of France at that time. (This is published on the opposite 
page.) 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 47 



DURABILITY OF TILE IN DRAINAGE WORK. 



"Within the town of Maubeuge, France, in my 
own neighborhood, was a convent of monks. * * * 
The convent did not escape the republic of 1793, and 
the aspect and inmates have changed, but its wide and 
splendid garden was respected. Was it on account of 
its reputation? It was well known that, from im- 
memorial time, it was renowned for its fertility, the 
beauty and earliness of its fruit and the friability of 
the soil. 

"The estate was sold, and last year the premises 
underwent repairs ; the prolific garden was turned into 
pleasure ground; park with fountains; driving cause- 
ways; artificial elevations of ground, and so forth. 
This overturning disclosed the secret of its marvelous 
reputation : Two complete and regular pipe drains 
extended throughout the whole garden at the depth of 
four feet. One of the drains had all its pipes radiating 
to a sinking well situated in a central position; the 
other was made of pipes all parallel, ending at a col- 
lecting pipe which discharged into a cellar. The owner 
had the kindness to give me two pipes as specimens 
of curiosity. They are about ten inches long and four 
inches in diameter ; one end expands into a funnel- 
shape, the other tapers into a core ; they are made of 
an argilo-silicious composition like most of our earth- 
enware, which is very hard and becomes very much 
glazed in burning, thereby becoming unalterable. All 
were found well preserved ; they were evidently made 
by hand and lathe. No particular data is given as to 
when the drain was constructed. MSS. left by the 
monks might solve the question; at any rate, some 
tombs placed over the drain in 1620 show it to be an- 
terior. Here, then, is ancient drainage, made with 
master hands, '260 years ago,' which in its dimensions, 
system and material, is much like those of the present 
day." 



48 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 

In the excavations made today of the ancient buried cities, clay 
tile are found in a perfect state of preservation. This proves con- 
clusively that the ancients knew w^hat they were doing in preparing 
their drainage systems. The ancient may have thought the world 
was flat, but he was progressive so far as drainage was concerned. 
Clay drain tile are being used in England today, taken from fields 
where they were laid as far back as 1810. 

So we see that there is ample evidence that tile underdrainage 
is not a new idea, that different ancient peoples believed in it and 
left for the future generations the impressive examples of the bene- 
fits of using common sense reasoning in draining their land. 

We do not have to delve into ancient history, however, to prove 
the value of tile underdrainage, for there is evidence close at hand 
for every farmer in the State of Indiana. 

During the past seven years we have been making an investi- 
gation of the conditions in the Hoosier State, visited the farms in 
various counties, and we have found that the successful farmers were 
those who had tile drained their farms, while the most failures were 
due to lack of proper drainage. Let us cite a few cases where the 
farmers are meeting with success and reaping big profits from their 
crops. We visited a number of farms in Fayette and Franklin 
Counties and interviewed the farmers, finding them, for the most 
part, enthusiastic advocates of tile underdrainage, for reasons set 
forth below. 

What Tile Underdrainage One of the first farms we visited was that of 
Did for Dan Broaddus ^r- Dan Broaddus, who owns a 120-acre 

tract of land four miles north of Conners- 
ville. He was just completing a splendid brick residence on his farm 
that would have done proud to any large city. This residence was 
made possible by the big profits made during recent years on his 
farm. It was not a paying farm a few years ago, for the cold clay 
soil made a poor farm land. There was an excess of water, the soil 
was too compact, and it didn't have the life and accessibility for air 
conducive to good plant growth. In endearvoring to improve the land, 
he experimented in various ways with the manures and commercial 
fertilizers, but the ground was so dense that the rainfall washed the 
fertilizers into the gullies, so that the subsoil was little benefited. The 
ground was plowed and harrowed, but the excessive water was still 
there, and the winter freezings kept the soil in the same old condition. 
Finally, a small section of land was tiled, a great deal of the excess 
water was thereby removed, the soil was thus made more porous, 
permitting the air to get down to the roots of the plants and give 
them the air fertility they needed. The fertilizers remained in the 
soil, adding greatly to the productivity of same. The first planting 
showed a wonderful improvement, and each succeeding year brought 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 49 



a larger crop. Every year he put in more tile, until his whole farm 
was tile-drained. This farm is producing over thirty bushels of 
wheat to the acre. When we were there, we walked through wheat 
fields over four feet high, and the heads were well formed. 

More Than Trebled His Yield Charles Thomas, who owns a farm a 
First Year Tile Were Laid '^hort distance from that of Mr. Broad- 

dus, proved the value of undcrdrainage. 
His land was by no means swampy, for it consisted of high, rolling 
ground, hardly enough level land on it to gather water. The soil was 
light grey in color, the subsoil a hard, dense formation. The water 
penetrating the soil was halted when coming in contact with the sub- 
soil, causing this land to become foul and sour. For several j'-ears he 
attempted to make his land more productive with the aid of com- 
mercial fertilizer and lime, but his efforts were not rewarded with any 
increased production. He simply needed to ventilate his subsoil, a 
condition which exists on thousands of farms in Indiana today. As a 
last resort, he tried tile undcrdrainage, which absolutely solved the 
problem and turned a poor farm into splendid paying investment. 
Where forty bushels of corn to the acre was a good yield, he is now 
producing nearly seventy bushels. The year before the land was 
drained he produced seven bushels of wheat, and that was a repre- 
sentative yield in that county on undrained farms. He took each 
field as it came in rotation for corn and laid in a good system of tile 
drainage, and then followed with wheat and clover. He put in 5,500 
feet of clay tile each year, until the entire farm was underdrained. 
The entire lines were sixty to eighty feet apart and thirty to thirty- 
six inches deep. The tile were mostly four-inch tile, but a quantity of 
five and six-inch tile were used. The first year after the tile were put 
in, the yield of wheat leaped from seven bushels to twenty-five bushels 
to the acre, and each succeeding planting of wheat brought a larger 
yield. He is growing alfalfa where it was impossible before, for the 
subsoil became more open and thawed earlier and prevented the freez- 
ing out of the crop. 

We asked Mr. Thomas what he thought of tile drainage. He 
stated that he owed everything to it; that it was an absolute necessity, 
and he wouldn't be without it for any consideration. "W' hy," he said, 
"there is seemingly no end to the benefits of tile drainage. Before, 
plowing was difficult, for the ground was so dense ; now, it is surpris- 
ingly easy and allows me to do the plowing much earlier ; therefore, 
I can plant much sooner and harvest early without fear of delay until 
.the fall frosts. While the ground was cold and close-grained before, 
*it is porous now, and I get a better effect from the fertilizer. Before, 
I could dig a hole most any place and find water in the clay within 
eighteen inches of the surface. The farmers around Harrisburg 



50 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



thought I was crazy, to tile my farm ; they laughed at me and joked 
about my ditching the hillside, saying it was a foolish idea to drain 
where there were no swamps ; but they are all tiling their farms now, 
since they learned what tiling was doing for me. Tile drainage is the 
only thing." 

He showed us a field of rye that was standing over five feet high, a 
beautiful sight waving in the bright, hot sunshine. 

Mr. W. E. Higham, who had plowed this farm years before, when 
a boy, stated that formerly the ground, when plowed, seemed to have 
a hard board floor underneath, and that they never had a good crop 
until Mr. Thomas tiled it. 

This farm consisted of ninety-eight acres ; every part of it was 



UWDRAIWED 



TILE 

DRAIWED 



'^ 



WATER LEV/EL ll\l SPRIIMG 



WATER LEVEL l[\) SUMMER 




■^ 



TILr WATER LEVEL 



Which corn root can do the best job of producing corn? 

On the undrained side the roots had to spread out close to the 
surface in the early part of the season because the soil below was 
full of water. Later, when the land below dried out, it was so hard 
the roots couldn't go down into it; anyway, they were already estab- 
lished in the top soil. When hot, dry days come, that shallow-rooted 
plant will suffer and burn and yield no crop. 




Tile drainage is one 
of the best ways to stop 
soil washing or soil 
erosion. When the 
water runs away 
through tile drains, it 
doesn't make gullies in 
the surface. 

Courtesy The Interna- 
tional Harvester Co. 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



51 



clean and orderly; the barnyards were free of rubbish and the usual 
scattered machines and odds and ends ; everything had its place, and 
a spirit of real pride pervaded the entire premises. 



An Occular Demonstration of the 
Value of Tile Underdrainage 

on tile-drained land. Directly 



We came to a field of clover, in 
which we walked kneedeep, as one 
of the illustrations shows. This was 
across the road Avas another field 
of clover, with numerous bare spots, the plants scanty and scarcely 
reaching the shoe-tops. This was the same kind of land as the other, 
but not tile-drained, giving us a very good object lesson in the effects 
of same. The owner is thoroughly convinced of the need of drainage 
now, and is going to tile his farm. 




The Heavy Crop of Clover Eaised on a Tile Drained Farm. 




■v?»1i<p* 



Scanty Growth of Clover in Field Across the Road Not Tile Drained. 



52 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 

There are other numerous large crop-yielding farms in Franklin 
county. We stopped at one of them. This one happened to be owned 
by the late John Hoffman, three miles north of Brookville. He was 
getting from sixty to seventy-five bushels of corn to the acre, where 
formerly twenty-five bushels was all that could be expected. The 
same development was shown in regards to the other crops. He was 
harvesting thirt3^-six bushels of wheat to the acre, while previous 
to tiling he got only eight to ten bushels. Two acres of oats now bring 
142 bushels; before, it was only one-third of that amount. Mr. Hoff- 
man had no end of good to say about land drainage. 

We stopped along the road to Brook\ille and called a farmer 
from his plow. It was Mr. John Rohmer, who owns a large farm, 
and delights to work in the field, although getting on in years. xA.sk- 
ing for a statement relative to the benefits of tile drainage, he waved 
his hand and shouted : "Go ahead and say anything. You can't say 
too much in favor of clay tile and tile drainage ; it pays big and is 
the only thing to do. Why, look at the big crops I am getting, and 
just think, I can plow so much earlier and easier." His production 
is three to four times larger than before he thoroughly tile-drained 
his farm, and increases each vear. Mr. Rohmer had the same con- 
dition to overcome as did Mr. Thomas. 

We met farmer after farmer, and it was the same thing over 
again. They had had ocular demonstrations, had tiled their farms 
and were reaping the big harvest and enjoying the happy, prosperous 
life they deserved for their enterprise. 

Effective Work There is a wide strip of land extending through 

Of Geo. Schebler Franklin and Riplc}' Counties and down into 
Dearborn Count}^ covering almost 400 miles, a 
part of the section of the state known as the Slash Fands. The soil 
found there is entirely different from the soils found in other sections 
of Indiana. From the beginning these lands were sour and contained 
very little fertility. The only timber that would grow on this land 
was white oak, and so low was the fertility that the oak grew very 
slowl}^ hence making a fine, tough grain. The decayed trees and 
leaves did not add much to the fertility of the soil, as in the case of 
timber on the other t3q'>es of soil, for the white oak contained tannic 
acid in a proportion that prevented the soil from becoming rich in fer- 
tility. After the land was cleared of its timber the people turned to 
farming, but with continued failure, for the land could not produce 
more than 8 bushels of wheat to the acre or 15 bushels of corn. For 
years farmers endeavored to enrich the soil with manure and com- 
mercial fertilizers, but in ^'ain, for the water could not carry the fer- 
tilizing elements into the subsoil ; the surface soil was too dense. 

It was in this section of the state, in the midst of the Slash Land, 
that Mr. George Schebler, inventor of the Schebler Carburetor, when 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 53 



he retired from the automobile business, not cravmg a life of leisure 
and loving the outdoors life, looked around for a location where study 
and planning would be neecssary in farm work. He did not buy land 
rich in fertility. He preferred to take the seemingly worthless, worn- 
out land and do his part in making it into something worth while. 

He became interested with his brother John in a farm one-half 
mile west of Hamburg, between Hamburg and Clarksburg, in Frank- 
lin County, which for fourteen A^ears was yielding only 10 to 12 bush- 
els of wheat, sometimes 5 or 7 bushels. Fifteen bushels of corn was 
the average. This was decidedl}^ unprofitable, but was all the land 
would produce under the conditions. 

Some farmers in that part thought that it could not be made pro- 
ductive, that it would be a waste of money to try to improve it. Mr. 
Schebler made a careful study of tile underdrainage, realized it had 
worked wonders in other soils, and became convinced that it could 
make this poor land pay and pay big. 

He tiled fifty-four acres thoroughl}-, using four and five-inch tile, 
thirty to forty feet apart and thirty to thirty-two inches deep. After 
he had put in the system the yield jumped from ten or twelve bush- 
els to eighteen bushels, and every succeeding yield was greater until 
in 1917 the yield was thirty bushels an acre. On one part of his farm 
the yield was thirty-three and three-fifths bushels an acre. 

I received the follovv'ing letter from Mr. Schebler, which is self- 
explanatorv : 

Batesville, Ind., Dec. 6, 1921. 
Mr. J. E. Randall : 

Dear Friend — In reply to your letter asking about tile underdrain- 
age and the benefits holding out — in other words, the increased ben- 
efits from year to year — wish to say that tile underdrainage in soil 
like on my farm surely has great lasting benefits. It has sweetened 
the soil, made it porous, and enabled the air and water to carry into 
the soil the fertilizing elements. With lime and underdrainage we got 
rid of the acid condition and now our crops are surprisingly good. We 
had a thirty-acre field of clover last year that could hardly be im- 
proved upon. We got three tons to the acre, where before we could 
scarcely get a stand. We fed this to the cattle, and what we couldn't 
return to the land in manure we turned under. This enriches the soil 
and prepares it for the next crop. This field of clover was a fine dem- 
onstration in favor of underdrainage and also liming. 

The field of wheat you saw yielded 33 bushels to the acre. Re- 
member, we only got about 12 bushels to the acre before the tile were 
put in. You can say for me that there are so many benefits after you 
get this land tiled that they are too numerous to mention. Tile under- 
drainage is the fundamental principle. 

Yours truly, GEORGE SCHEBLER. 



54 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



So Well satisfied was Mr. Schebler with the results obtained on 
this seemingly worthless soil that he bought up other farm lands in 
that part and began to put in tile underdrainage systems on a large 
scale. He bought a ditching machine, operated it himself and ditched 
thousands of rods. He is a godsend to that part of the state, and 
through his efforts that part he is developing will blossom forth as one 
of the best producing centers of Franklin County. 

T was pleased to spend a day with him on his farm between Old- 
enburg and Batesville, where he tiled ninety acres in 1917, and even 
more than that in each succeeding year. 

He knows he will get good yields, now that the land is tiled, and 
has prepared for same. He has built a large, fine barn, 84x42 feet, six- 
teen feet under the eave trough, with self-supporting roof and sixteen- 




A Splendid Crop of Wheat Grown in the Slash Land. 

foot rafters. It is a splendid, modern type structure and will suit the 
purposes admirably. 

There are a number of farmers who have had the same experience 
and h.:\\e converted their slash lands into profitable farms. 

The slash lands of Indiana remained in their poor state for years 
because the farmers were not progressive and knew little or nothing 
about the requirements for good plant growth. Finally one real up- 
to-date farmer changed the whole aspect. He used common sense, 
tiled his farm and began to reap big harvests. His farm im.proved 
each year and still has not reached its highest point of efficiency. He 
lives in a brick house, has large barns and fine stock, owns an auto 
and has money in the bank, because his tile are working for him. The 
slash lands of Indiana have hardly been scratched yet, but the farmers 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 55 

are learning the value of tile underdrainage, so that ultimately the 
entire section ^^'ill be con^'erted into profitable farm land. 

The Clay Loam Soils ^^ e visited Marion County and saw the splen- 
did results farmers were getting on tile-drained 
land and the poor crops they were experiencing on the undrained 
land. This section is in the clay loam belt of Central Indiana. We 
spent considerable time on Mr. Sterling R. Holt's farm, which is lo- 
cated on the Rockville and High School Roads, extending one mile 
from the Rockville Road south along the High School Road. There 
are 160 acres ; 76 acres on the northern end Avas formerly known as 




Ditching- Machine at Work on Schebler Farm. Mr. Schebler 
Operating Machine. 

the old Stout Farm. Mr. Holt has changed this from an unprofitable 
farm to a money-producing investment, for while in the years past, 
before it was underdrained and proper treatment given, it would yield 
less than 25 bushels of corn to the acre at best, today the average is 
better than 70 bushels of corn to the acre. The land now is producing 
heavy crops of alfalfa where before it would not grow at all, because 
water drowned it out and in its place weeds grew in abundance. After 
this land was tiled and a liberal application of lime-rock was made, 
farming here proved a pleasure for many reasons. The other portion 
of the farm was formerly the Charlie Hanch Farm, which had been 
rented for fifteen years and no care taken at all by the succeeding 
tenants. Mr. Holt purchased the land recently and is thoroughly un- 



56 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



derdraining it. Since it is the same type of soil and in the same con- 
dition as he found the old Stout farm, by like treatment he will have 
all 160 acres producing equally splendid crops in a very short time. 

While walking over the farm with Mr. Holt I asked him what in- 
fluence drainage had on alfalfa, and the following was his reply ; 

"Well, sir, answering that question, I'd say you cannot separate 
the two, for tile underdrainage is the chief essential in good alfalfa 
growth. You see those fields of alfalfa over there? I've grown noth- 
ing but alfalfa on them for the past sixteen years, and I get around 
five tons to the acre annually. I can just sit here and let it grow ; it 
does not need the care other crops do. Year after year I cut those 




This View and Picture on Opposite Page Are Scenes 
on the Adjoining Farms Referred to. This Field Pro- 
duces Tliree Good Crops of Alfalfa Each Year, Due to 
the Underdrainage and Proper Treatment. 

fields three times a season and never reseed. I just run over the 
ground both ways with spring-toothed alfalfa harrow after each cut- 
ting. This throws out the weeds and grass. 

"Of course, it wasn't that way in the beginning. That land was 
cold clay land and too wet for any kind of crop. 

"The only thing for me to do if I were going to make my land 
worth anything at all was to change that condition, for the previous 
owners went broke trying to grow crops there without changing the 
soil much. Oh, they plowed it and put manure on it, but that didn't 
do any good, for the land was dense and wet. The crops were bound 
to be drowned out. The soil had to be made porous and the excess 
water removed. Drainage was the only sensible thing to do. 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



57 



"I studied the subject carefully, knew I had to tile drain that land 
and determined that tile should be put in systematically or not at all. 
When I tiled I hired an expert and had the systems laid according to 
the recjuirements. My tile are 30 inches deep and all the lines 60 feet 
apart. Do you know, I was surprised myself at the wonderful change 
the tile made in that land the first year. Every bit of the expense, and 
more, was made back right off the jump, for I raised double the crop 
I had before, and the beauty of the whole thing is it seems to get 
better every year. I've made up my mind that I can't tile too much, 
for it opens up the soil, removes that excess water and allows the air 
to circulate down deep. 

■'It was like trying to plow over a board floor before, that ground 
was so hard and dense, and there wasn't much life in the soil either 




This Field with Same Type of Soil, but Wet, Due to 
Fact it is Not Underdrained Grows Scarcely Anything 
but Weeds. Drain Tile Would Change This Soil From 
Unprofitable to Profitable Farm Land. 

because the ingredients needed in the land from the rains and manure 
had been washed away into the gullies by the surface washings simply 
because the ground was too dense. The rains and melted snov./s could 
not percolate very far. 

"It was a hard job to get scarcely any kind of a crop before T tile 
drained. But when I had those tile working for me there certainly 
was a surprising change. The ground was easy to plow, the soil was 
rid of its dampness and close structure and there wasn't the surface 
washing. The water would not stand in that gro.und after a rain, for 
the tile carried it oft", but the fertilizing elements needed in the soil 
were retained and not washed into the gullies. 



58 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



Lime Sweetens Soil "Of course, I put on a liberal quantity of ground 
limestone to sweet the soil before I did any 
planting, and then I went to it. That alfalfa grew wonderfully and 
has never given me one bit of trouble since. I attribute ni}^ success in 
growing alfalfa to the fact that I have a well tiled farm and sweet soil. 
.So when you ask me what I think of the influence of tile underdrain- 
age on good alfalfa growth, I simply have to admit that I can't sep- 
arate the two, for I don't believe you can grow good alfalfa on any but 
tiled ground. 

"Tile underdrainage is essential in the growing of any crop if you 
want to make big profits, but it is more essential in growing alfalfa 
or the other deep-rooted plants than in growing any other kind of 
crop. For corn you need a deep clay loam, while for wheat a lighter 
soil will do ; rye you can grow in most any place, but tile underdrain- 
age v/ill give your land a big advantage over your neighbor's if his is 
not tile drained." 

He turned suddenly in his walk over his alfalfa field and pointed 
to a field of an adjoining farm covered with weeds. 

Weeds or Alfalfa "Do you see that mass of weeds over there across 
the road? Well, that belongs to a neighbor friend 
of mine who is going to tile in the spring. His soil js exactly as mine 
was once, but he hasn't been able to grow alfalfa because the ground 
is too wet. He has tried it for years now and has finally made up his 
mind to follow my example. All the lime and manure in the world 
wouldn't make that land good for alfalfa without a drainage system. 
Doesn't that field of weeds and the knowledge that he has tried it 
time and again prove it? Of course it does. I am going to plant 
twenty acres more in alfalfa this year. I'll break ground in the spring 
and cultivate it until the last of July, running an alfalfa harrow over 
it about every ten days. Then I'll sow it with a drill, using ai:)Out 
eighteen pounds of seed to the acre. Another good way to start grow- 
ing alfalfa is to sow in oats or barley and then your alfalfa. Last year 
I put in a new field, soM'cd alfalfa and barley April 1st, and in June 
got 32 bushels of barley; on September 1st cut over a ton of alfalfa 
to the acre ofl^ same piece of ground. I could have made another good 
cutting, but I preferred to let it stand to take care of the new alfalfa 
during the winter. Next year this field will give me splendid crops of 
alfalfa. 

"I like to use plenty of lime and phosphate. They do the soil a 
lot of good. I'll use four to six tons of ground lime rock this year, ap- 
plying it with a lime spreader. I think 200 pounds of 16 per cent, acid 
phosphate to the acre is about right. It gi^'es good roots. The best 
time to put in the phosphate is just after the cutting, when you're run- 
ning over the ground with a fine-toothed alfalfa harrow. 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



59 




DESCRIPTION OF BRANCHES AND LATERALS. 



Branch No. 1 consists of 10-inch tile from Point 7 to Point 0, 
and 8- inch tile from Point 13 to Point 7, there being- 42% and 
36 rods, respectively. Branches Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5 are all of 8-inch 
tile, there being 60i/^, 42i/^ 46 and 36 rods, respectively. All the 
laterals were laid with 5-inch tile, 1,421 rods in all. There are 221 
rods of 8-inch tile and 42i,4 rods of 10-inch tile. In Branch No. 1 
there is a rise of 90-100 foot a hundred to Point 7; 16-10 feet to 
Point 8; 90-100 foot a hundred to Point 11 and a rise of 11/2 feet a 
hundred to Point 13. There are 618 rods of laterals emptying into 
Branch No. 1. Branch No. 2 has a rise of 95-100 a hundred to 
Point 3: 75-100 a hundred to Point 8, and 128-100 feet a hundred 
to Point 10. Three hundred and ten rods of 5-inch tile drain into 
this branch. Branch No. 3 has a rise of 95-100 foot a hundred to 
Point No. 4, 21/4 feet a hundred to Point 6 and one foot to Point 7. 
One hundred and ninety-six rods of 5-inch tile drain into this 
branch. Branch No. 4 has a rise of three feet a hundred to Point 
4 and ll^ feet a hundred to the end of the branch. There are sev- 
enty-one rods of five-inch tile draining into this branch. Branch 
No. 5 has a rise of two feet per hundred to Point 3 and 1% feet a 
hundred to Point 6. There are 148 rods of 5-inch tile draining into 
this branch. 

The ditches for the tile were made by a ditching machine. 
All the tiling was laid thirty-six inches deep. There are open 
ditches at the end of each outlet. 



60 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



"I cut my alfalfa three times a year, the first about June 1st, the 
second about the middle of July and the last in September. Alfalfa 
brings a good price. It makes the finest feed possible; we keep our 
horses fat through the winter with no other feed. We don't have to 
feed them any grain at all." 

Alfalfa Roots in Tile I asked him if he had ever heard of the alfalfa 

roots entering the tile and being bad in that 
particular, and he replied that it was not reasonable to think that al- 
falfa could give any trouble in that respect. "Why, the alfalfa roots 
are fine and are near the surface except for the one main root, which, 
of course, sometimes penetrates to a depth of fifteen feet. These main 
roots do not interfere with your drains because they would not go 
through, but would go aroimd or probably miss the tile entirely. Al- 
falfa, you know, can't stand much water. Even if the alfalfa roots did 
get into the tile they would rot off in no time, so that it wouldn't affect 
your drains an}^ Why, I've grown alfalfa for over twenty years and 
have never had one single bit of trouble with my drains. 

"There are but few sections of land in the State that cannot grow 
alfalfa with the proper preparation of the soil. Probably every farmer 
in the State really desires to grow alfalfa, but many are under the im- 
pression that their land is not suited for raising it. If he will only try 
out a part of his farm, put in a good system of tile undcrdrainage, make 
the soil sweet and make a good seed bed, and thus prepare his soil 
before planting, he will prove to his own satisfaction that great oppor- 
tunity he has neglected. Remember this : Alfalfa needs a dry sub- 
soil, and the tile undcrdrainage makes this possible. On most land the 
tile should be put in every sixty feet, and a liberal application of good 
lime rock made. This will make a good stand of alfalfa. 

"The influence of tile undcrdrainage on good alfalfa growth can 
not be expressed by words. It is the profits in dollars and cents that 
speak unmistakably of its great value and importance. 

Value of Hairy Vetch "Another thing that does our land a lot of good 
is hairy vetch. We put in about forty pounds 
of seed of hairy vetch to the acre every August. It grows up in the 
fall, giving a lot of fine pasturing, covers the ground in the winter, 
and then in the spring it grows along the ground until it is five feet 
long, covering the ground all over. It is fifteen to eighteen inches 
long the middle of May, and can be pastured or turned under. This 
plant gathers a great amount of nitrogen, a needed element for plant 
growth. The roots of the plant become white with its abundance of 
nitrogen, there are great knots of it, or rather nodules, as they are 
called. This plant also helps to loosen up the soil. This is a help, 
but tile drainage is the only way in which 3'ou can make a farm pay 
in the manner it should." 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



61 



Relation of Underdrainage A very interesting example of what tile 
to Soil Conditions underdrainage will do for soils lacking in 

fertility is that of a field now growing ex- 
cellent crops of alfalfa near Sweetzer, Ind. Four feet of the surface 
soil was removed for use in the manufacture of tile and the soil at that 
depth was naturally without an appreciable amount of fertility. The 
land was thoroughly underdrained with four-inch tile thirty inches 
deep and the following year planted in corn with the resulting yield 
of 76 bushels to the acre ; the following year alfalfa was sown and 
three heav}^ cuttings were secured. The picture shows the field as it 
appeared the latter part of September. Another remarkable thing 
about this soil is the fact that the surrounding undrained land is nol 




Tiled Land Which Produced Excellent Alfalfa, Formerly Low in 

Fertility. 

as fertile now as the soil found four feet below and underdrained. 
This proves that imderdraining pays and that in land where roots can 
not go down to a sufficient depth they do not reach a wide enough area 
of plant food storage. 

What Underdrainage Did The writer had the pleasure on one of the 
For the Brewer Farm hottest days in July of visiting the excellent 

farm of Edgar D. Brewster in Johnson 
county, Indiana. While old Sol was playing havoc with thermometers 
and humans in general, the temperature reading ar(.^und the century 
mark, the interest the farm afl^ordcd made the writer forget about 



62 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



the heat and he was glad to take pictures from the metal roofs of 
the sheds or while standing on top of one of the numerous high fence 
posts. It was indeed a most interesting and fascinating farm, due to 
the splendid yields, the variety in the crops, the methods of farming, 
the feeding and the care of the cattle. 

The farm consists of 117 acres of well-drained land. That year 
seven and one-half acres were in alfalfa, the yield being six tons 
to the acre on the average. Eleven acres in oats brought 30 bushels 
to the acre, the same amount of land sown in barley brought the 
same production. Four acres planted in kafin- corn brought the enor- 




Mr. Brewer in Fiekl of Corn That Yiekled Nearly 90 Bu. Per Acre. 

mous yield of twelve tons to the acre. Twenty-two acres were in 
red clover and gave a good, clean crop. Forty acres were planted in 
corn, which produced about ninety bushels to the acre. The writer 
was informed as to the above facts later and was not surprised in 
the least, for when he was there in July he witnessed fields of corn 
that looked like young forests, walked through alfalfa fields over 
knee deep, and was amazed at the thick, tall growth of the kaffir 
corn. 

Everything about the farm spoke in no uncertain language of 
progress and prosperity. The entire farm was well fenced and clean 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



63 



in every particular. The driveways, watering places and exercise yards 
were neat and healthful in appearance and the cattle, horses and hogs 
were fat and of fine quality. Everything in the sheds and the barns 
was in place, and there was a delightful absence of old, discarded 
equipment and rubbish heaps. I took particular note of the hollow 
tile feed storage house, which seemed to me the ideal place for storing 
oats, rye and the small grain. Another interesting feature to me was 
the grove of catalpa trees which covered several acres, affording a 
much-needed shade for the live stock on those hot days. The hog 
pens underneath the corn bins also did not escape my attention. The 






'^'^I^tm^ 











The Alfalfa Field Ten Days After the Second Cutting. 

statement, made above in regard to that year's yield, would sound 
good to the average farmer. Mr. Brewer is well satisfied with the 
production of his farm, but he says it is going to yield even more to 
the acre next year, because he has his drainage system working for 
hkn, making his land richer and better and the manures and lime- 
stone used are having a splendid effect. 

This farm was somewhat different in looks, yield and everything 
else, way back in the 80's when Mr. Brewer's father was working it. 
The times were different then, the country round about was wilder 
and there, was very little known about the real benefits of tile under- 
drainage and the best methods of installation. In those days the elder 
Brewer used tile, and they did good work, too, but they were small 
tile (2 and 3-inch) and couldn't begin to relieve the ground of its 
wetness. The land in this section of the country is what is termed 
beech land, a cold clay, close grained soil very difficult to get water 



64 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 

through. Where the best corn is raised on this farm today, wild geese 
and ducks floated around upon the water of a now-vanished pond 
content with the wildness of the spot and the protection afforded by 
the underbrush in the days of forty years ago. 

Before the 80's the farm was tiled in a small way in the beginning, 
and additional drains were placed as time and money would permit. 
It was in the 80's that the larger tiles were first put in and results 
were so gratifying that every year more extensive work in drainage 
was done until the farm was thoroughl}^ tiled. It is needless to say 
that the thickets soon disappeared and the pond was a thing of the 
past. While a lot of the small three-inch tile remain in the ground 
and are still in working order and in perfect condition after forty 



1 


1 


L 


s^** 

^ 














R 


^' 


; . . 


: 










•n 




H 


w 


















i 


m 


^ 














i 


1 


1 


r; 






H 










's. 




*; . 


*S, ~ V 


!»., 


>> 




* 


■!-. ^*.'iMj>;-<.i, 


.-?-■- 



A Bumper Crop of Wheat on a Well-Drained Farm. 

years of use, these lines will later be replaced with larger tile, located 
at a greater depth, even to four and five feet. 

In an interview with Mr. Brewer he said in part — "Farming to me 
is a real pleasure, there is no drudger}^ to it to me now since the land 
is in such excellent producing condition. I wouldn't do without my 
tile system for any consideration for that you know is the real back- 
bone of my farm. This land was formerly so dense and close grained 
that you could scarcely get any appreciable crop off of it. The plants 
were choked and they didn't have a healthful place to live in. We 
couldn't open the ground up much with plowing and, of course, as 
long as the soil was dense and cold the fertilizers had no effect. Every 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



65 



rain washed the manure and fertilizing elements into the gullies, and 
the plants had to live in the excess water which stood in numerous 
places on the land. The only solution to this kind of- condition is tile 
under-drainage. My father saw that in the early days and he did the 
best he could with the conditions of that time. He did the pioneer 
work of cleaning the land and getting a drainage system started. My 
work has been to enlarge upon his work and to take advantage of 
modern methods and equipment. I put 4 to 8 inch tile in ev,-ry few 
rods until I had the entire 117 acres drained and then began to put in 
more tile between lines. 

"It is a great mistake for farmers not to tile; it is the best place 
they can bury their mone}', for it is always a safe investment and will 
increase the earning power of the land as the years pass by. If you 







^.1 



A Poor Stand of Corn on Wet Ground— Drainage Would Pay. 

tile in this latitude you are always sure of your crop for it is safe from 
drought or a wet season. You don't need anything but natural 
manure, barnyard manure and clover for inoculation and a little 
lime rock to sweeten the soil. 

"While ditching, I sometimes run onto a line of two-inch tile my 
father put in before the 80's and do you know they are still carrying 
water. These old tile are only 16 inches below ground. Of course, 
my drains go from 30 inches to 4 feet. M}^ main lines are 4 feet deep. 
I wouldn't put any line in less than 30 inches deep. Nearly all my tile 
is put in now three spades deep (a 16-inch spade being used). I be- 
lieve in careful attention to the rotation of crops and like to plant corn, 
barley, oats and clover. I don't raise any wheat for my farm is purely 
a stock and feed farm. That, I consider the best way to farm, for the 



66 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 

grain and fodder you grow will fatten your stock and then you can 
put it back into the ground again in the manure. After the corn I have 
rye in the fall and pasture the hogs then plow it under in the spring." 

Got Rid of a We paid Mr. J. W. Arbuckle a visit recently down in 
Bad Overflow Rush county, Indiana, where he was ditching a corner 
of his father's farm. The ditched portion consisted of 
17 acres of sugar-tree land that had been an eyesore on the farm due 
to the fact that every spring this land was the catch basin of the over- 
flow from many of the surrounding fields and was left in a condition 
of little value for farming. Tile underdrainage was the only remedy 
for such a condition, and now that it is thoroughly tiled, splendid crops 
will take the place of the meager 3-ields and rank weeds formerly 
grown there. An illustration of this underdrainage system is shown 
herewith. Five, six, seven and eight-inch tile were used for laterals, 
feeding into a sixteen-inch main and also an eighteen-inch county 
ditch. The large sizes of tile in main drains were required because of 
the unusual amount of overflow experienced here. Ordinarily an 
eight-inch outlet would be sufficient for handling the water from the 
land. 

Mr. Arbuckle ditched 520 rods on this farm, finishing the work in 
five days. A small Buckeye ditcher was employed. He operates a 
larger ditcher for work requiring greater than ten-inch tile. Work 
by the big machine is based on 5 cents per inch per depth of trench. 

In Shelby County Near Flat Rock, in fact right across the road from 
the entrance to the park of the Flat Rock Cave, 
eight miles south of Shelbyville, Shelby County, is located the farm of 
Elmer Toner. Mr. Toner purchased this farm in March, 1921, and 
has nearl}'- completed the work of thoroughly underdraining the 153 
acres it embraces. He formerly lived on the farm which had been 
thoroughly tiled by his grandfather in Hendricks Township, Shelby 
County, and sold the farm only because of the unusual high price 
offered for it. After a two years' vacation he decided to take up farm- 
ing again and purchased the present farm, which had been tiled to 
some extent ten years ago and had given a 50 per cent, increase in 
yield. The undrained soil had grown 35 bushels of corn to the acre, 
but after being tiled raised 70 bushels. This would seem satisfactory 
to the average farmer, but Mr. Toner's previous experience had taught 
him that he could hardly over-tile his land. He decided that the sys- 
tem was not thorough enough, and while this was level land of the 
sugar-tree yellow clay soil, he set to work, carefully surveyed the 
farm and installed an elaborate system and when they cut into the old 
lines these were repaired and allowed to fimction in addition to the 
new svsteni. 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



67 




This Machine Averages Better Than 150 liocls Per Day. 



Tlat 

^Howi'Vo- Tile Drmna^e 

OF FlEUtJ >Vo.1. 

^J*TH^^( ARBUcKUe TaR^A 

tAtT OF HoMEl? 
Rl»H Co0^lT^|^^IO. 




lltTf 



ARBUCKLE e GATES 



Drainage System on Arbuc»ile Farm. 



68 



Soil Protection and Soil In provement 



As the accompanying sketch shows, the lines were 140 feet apart, 
extending- over the entire 153 acres. The average depth is 44 inches 
and the size of tile ranges from 8 to 5-incli. The main lines are 8 and 
f)-inch tile, while the laterals are 5-inch ; about 25,000 feet of tile had 
been laid ii]) to October. Mr. Toner states tliat lie is contemplating- 
])iitting in lines between the new ones, making the distance 70 feet 
apart.^ The tile are not being ])ut in because the land is swampv or 
wet, for land has no free water. The drainage system is installed to 
let nature do its real work of getting the fertilizing elements into the 
soil air. 

The following letter received from Mi. Toner shows his views on 
tile underdrainage. 

"Flat Rock, Ind., R. No. 3, November 16, 1921. 

"Mr. James E. Randall, Indianapolis, Ind. : 

"Dear Sir — Pursuant to your request. I am sending under sepa- 
rate cover a chart of the tile drains employed on my farm. The dotted 
lines represent drains to be put in after harvest of next year. All the 




Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 69 



other drains are in excepting five acres south of the woods, on which 
they are now working. There were a number of drains already on the 
farni in good condition. They were repaired, when cut through, and 
will do as much as before. It seems extravagant, but it is not so. The 
farm will pay the bill with interest in increased earnings. My faith 
in drainage is founded on practical experience, results gleaned from the 
research of soil experts. It is my belief that this branch of soil im- 
provement is first of all in importance in the betterment of soil con- 
ditions and soil production. Productiveness is determined by the 
capacity of soil to hold moisture and the completeness with which the 
roots of plants can utilize it, along with the soluble salts which it con- 
tains. Water in soil is harmful when it excludes the air, thus suffocat- 
ing and poisoning the roots of plants and living organisms. It is 
helpful when it surrounds the soil grains as a thin film, permitting the 
air to circulate and supply oxygen and Axntilation to the plant roots 
and to soil bacteria. The chief benefit of farm drainage seems to be 
to areate the soil, to increase, by carrying off the stagnant water, the 
pore space, and thus, permit the free air to penetrate and occupy. 
Professor King, an authority on soil physics, says, 'that when water 
drains away from soil or is carried upward and out by capillarity or 
root action, it acts by suction to draw into the soil a volume of air 
equal to that of the water which flows out' 

''Drainage lowers the ground water so that roots are able to pene- 
trate to a greater depth, feeding on the plant food found there, decay- 
ing in their turn and leaving passageways opened up for yet more air 
and oxygen to enter. 

"A well-drained soil is warmer and earlier than one which is wet 
because of the influence of the evaporation of moisture on soil tem- 
perature, and the chief reason why an undrained clay soil is colder 
than one well drained is because of the cold generated by the process 
of evaporation. Sandy soils are warmer than clay for the reason that 
sand has a smaller capacity for water and they drain naturally. 

"The pleasure of working a well-drained soil is worth much. Tile 
drains put soil in a mechanical, a physical, condition which conduces 
materially to ease and comfort of operation. 

"Hoping that this is something like what you wanted, I am 

"Yours verv truly, 
(Signed) ' "ELMER TONER." 

The Marsh Lands If there are any people on the face of the globe 
of Indiana that are enthusiastic supporters of tile underdrain- 

age it is the people in Marshall County, Indiana. 
All the successful farms in that part of the country are tiled, even the 
farms with high sandy soil. 

"Seven hundred bushels of onions to the acre — that's what tile 



70 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 

underdrainage did for us here where three years ago we were wading 
tliroiigh the marshes in boots hunting pheasants." This was one of 
the expressions used by the superintendent of the N, W. Erickson 
farm, I'olk Tov/nship, Marshall County, Indiana, made during our 
conversation while walking over his onion fields. 

This farm is located four and one-half miles southeast of Walker- 
ton, on the old Laporte road, an old Indian trail known as the old 
yellow river road. It is only one of many farms built up out of the 
marshes and is not the exception, many of the other farms in that 
region being larger producers. It is the onion district of the Hoosier 
State, millions of bushels are produced annually from the land re- 
claimed from those old swamps and marshes. 

Three years ago you could not get a team out without bog shoes, 
it was considered "mighty poor farm land" and a decidedly unhealthy 
place in which to live. Not so today. 

The knowledge of a few simple facts and the nerve backing up 
conviction made this great change possible. Much credit is due those 
men who have turned these marsh lands into a rich farm section. It 
took real nerve and it required great perseverance to grub this section, 
clear it of its useless brush and undergrowth and to prepare the way 
for drainage. Once the tiles were laid, the foundation for great re- 
turns was secured. 

The tile did the work, the excess water was removed and the rich 
soil buried or hidden away for ages stretched out in the sun where it 
could take on a new life. With the removal of the water the unhealthy 
condition disappeared and this formerly mosquito-breeding section be- 
came a delightful place to live in. 

The Erickson Farm Let us visit the N. W. Erickson farm and 

listen to the story of its superintendent. 
"You say you want to know what tile underdrainage did for the marsh 
lands of Indiana? Well, I can't say too much in praise of tile. It has 
given us everything in this section. It has given us healthier condi- 
tions, it has lifted up our lands so to speak, has given us something to 
grow crops on and after the giving has made that soil open and porous 
and has made possible our use of its rich fertility, enriching the soil in 
its work." 

Six years ago Mr. Erickson cleared a section of the land here and 
raised onions in a small way. Of course, as soon as he had grubbed 
it he put in a system of tile underdrainage to remove the excess water, 
that was absokitely necessary. The first year's crop of onions was so 
satisfactory that he enlarged his farm and more thoroughly tiled his 
land. F.ach succeeding year more land was cleared, open ditches and 
tile drains were put in so that today this farm consists of eighty acres 
of as rich soil as one can find in any part of Indiana. 

As we walked over the field of both set and seed onions he pointed 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



71 



out the outlets and the territory of the main drains. Fourteen, twelve 
and ten-inch clay tile are used for the main drains, while five-inch tile 
are the smallest sizes used in the laterals. He showed me the forty- 
acre field planted in corn and the four-acre plot of potatoes and then 
continued his narrative. 

"The average yield in onions is 500 bushels. Two years ago we 
made the record yield of 700 bushels to the acre and got 40 to 70 cents 
a bushel in the patch. Will do that again. Our past season has been 
a little ofif. 

"The business has grown so large that we have had to hire at 
times nine men to help us out. We plant as early in the spring as 
possible, just as soon as the frost is out of the ground. There are nine 











An Onion Field on the Erickson Farm, Wiiich I'ruduced 700 Bushels 
to the Acre. Tile Underdrained. 

acres in sets and twenty-one acres in seeds. The seed onions are put 
in after the sets. We find along about the 10th to 17th of April is the 
best time to plant. The set onions are harvested about the middle of 
July, while the seed onions the last of August. We grow the yellow 
and red globe varieties. The first year we crated and marketed in 
Walkerton, but the business grew so large we had to store them, hence 
the building of that large barn over there and the store house adjoin- 
ing it. 

Handling the Crop "The onions are taken from the field and 

dropped into bins from which they are taken 
and crated as soon as convenient. The crated onions are stored away 



72 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



in a storage holding 13,000 crates. Just before the heaviest selling 
time for us the storage is entirely filled. 

"When you consider the fact that we receive from 40 to 70 cents 
a bushel in the patch and raise over .SOO bushels to the acre each season 
you can figure how profitable onion growing is in this section. Re- 
member this is in a place that for hundreds of 3^ears was considered an 
eyesore, a health destroyer, a swampy marsh, good for hunting only, 
a place where mosquitoes thrived and the muskrat lived in peace and 
satisfaction. The underdrainage did all this, and I can not say too 
much for it. It removed the excess water from the soil and made the 
land tillable. It opened up the soil and allowed the air to circulate 
and the nitrogen, that much-needed element, to work down to the 
plant roots. Of course, this land was rich in fertility from the decayed 
vegetation of centuries; it did not need tile drainage for that in par- 
ticular, but it did absolutely need it to make the fertility useful. The 
tile makes the soil warmer and permits us to plant earlier because the 
frost goes out quicker than in land not tile drained. We have plenty 
of water yet in this section, but in case there is a drouth tile will make 
our land drouth resisting simpl}^ because it only takes off the surplus 
water and retains the water needed which passes back to the surface 
by capillary action. 

Benefits of Drainage "There was never anything manufac- 

tured of more benefit to the onion grow- 
ers of this section than tile. We couldn't use the modern conveniences 
here today if it were not for tile underdrainage, for without it we 
would be living in the marshes with the tormenting insects, the fever 
germs, the croaking frogs and the song of the red-winged blackbird." 
Tile underdrainage has indeed worked wonders in that section. 
But it is not there only that the drainage has a great value. It is 
profitable to put in drainage systems in high land as well as in the 
low wet land. No matter whether the soil is dry or wet,, tile under- 
drainage has its function. The dry land may be too compact so that 
the fertilizing elements are washed away into the gullies with the 
passing rains. Tile underdrainage opens up the soil and allows the 
elements needed to percolate down deep to the plant roots and retains 
the water required b}^ the plant. 

In the Rolling Down in the southwestern portion of Indiana the 
Clay Uplands soils are yellow or greyish with the exception of the 
river bottom or creek bottom lands, where foreign 
soils have been carried and deposited there from the clay loam region 
to the north. This land is greatly in need oi drainage and the appli- 
cation of lime phosphate and nitrogen. 

The use of good farm practices in Sullivan County has produced 
record crops. The C. L. Davis farm west of Sullivan — good black 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



73 



soil and thoroughly underdrained in 1916 — has produced 100 bushels 
of corn to the acre. On the Frank Mason; farm, south of Sullivan, 
high creek bottom land tiled in 1912, better than 100 bushels of corn 
to the acre have been produced, while previous to tiling the crops were 
always uncertain. John McNab, south of Merom, has a tiled farm 
that is also in the 100-bushel class. 

J. T. Akin owns a farm near Carlisle that has been tiled for nearly 




Bumper Crop of Corn, Sullivan County, On Drained Land. 



twenty-five years. It produces around 40 bushels of wheat to the 
acre, while the Pogue farm near Fairbanks has yielded as high as 41 
bushels of wheat. Willis Drake, south of Fairbanks, averages around 
38 bushels of wheat, and Charles Riggs, near Staffordshire, has done 
better than 44 bushels. Will Riggs has a farm near Fairbanks that 
is a good object lesson on tile underdrainage. In 1917 on an undrained 
portion of the farm he raised 21 bushels of wheat to the acre, but on 



74 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



the tiled portion of his farm the yield was 38 bushels per acre with 
the same cultivation and seed. 

We hear farmers remark that they do not need tile underdrainage, 
that their land has such a great amount of natural drainage that under- 
drainage is not needed. This is a great mistake. Remember tile un- 
derdrainage is essential in both hilltop or rolling lands and in low 
lands. Tile underdrainage helps 3^ou in time of wetness or drouth, for 
the simple reason that it removes the surplus water that is a detri- 
ment, but retains the water needed for the growing plants and supplies 
same in time of drought due to the capillary action. 

At a drainage convention at Purdue Prof. W. H. Stevenson, one 
of the leading authorities on underdrainage in Iowa, made the follow- 




Poor Stand of Corn, Sullivan County, On Undrained Land. 

ing reply to a cjuestion asked as to whether or not there was any dif- 
ference experienced in very dry weather through the tile drainage of 
land: 

"Under no conditions does a tile drain remove water from the 
soil which is or will be needed of value to that soil or the crop that 
grows on it. That is true because the tile drain takes from the land 
only surplus water — water which we call surplus because it is not 
held by the soil particles. The only relation that the surplus water 
bears to tile land and the crop is a nuisance. No season is so dry that 
any water that the tile has taken out would have responded benefi- 
ciall)^ 1 know a farmer who had a farm that cost him $1,200. It had 
two or three ponds and was very wet. He spent $2,000 or $3,000 on 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



75 



drainage and doubled the income. I know of many farms in our State 
which are absolutely unproductive, not partially, not spotted with just 
certain bad places, but absolutely unproductive, because they are too 
wet. That land may be worth $10 to $20 per acre in that condition. 
There is almost no reasonable limit to the amount of money a man 
can spend on that land to get it into shape for cultivation because it 
will pay him back a hundredfold." 

There are a good many farmers who ditch out their black land 
and let their clay soil go without ditching, not realizing that the clay 







Root Development of Corn in Poorly In Well Drained Soil Roots Go Deep 
Drained Soil. and Are Not Affected by Drouth. 

soils need draining as much as black soils and will produce as equally 
good crops as black soils when thoroughly drained. Remember that 
old adage, "Drain well, drain deep, and you'll have corn to sell and 
keep." It is just as true as this little verse: 

"And who have tried it firmly say 
That draining land is sure to pay. 
And farmers' barns are filled with corn, 
While frogs must emigrate or mourn." 

There isn't any -nuestion as to the benefits of tile underdrainage. 



76 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 

The writer is convinced that nearly every reader fully appreciates 
what tile underdrainage will do for his land. However, there are 
thousands of farmers in this country who have not thoroughly drained 
their land, the reason for such neglect perhaps being due to a ciuestion 
of finance or a lack of knowing how. We point out the ways and 
mer.ns in the following pages. 

How to Install First, have a general plan. It is work that 

Underdrainage Systems can be done a little at a time if desired, but 

a plan embracing all that will need to be done 
to complete the entire drainage of the farm should be determined 
upon. Map out the system for every acre of your farm and then tile 
the low places first, working back to the higher ones. Always begin 
at the outlet and progress with the work as conditions will allow until 
the undertaking is well done. Many have followed this plan until they 
completed the work without any extraordinary expenditure of money 
at an}'' time, depending largely upon the profits accruing from the 
work already done. First one field is tile drained and put to profitable 
crop production then another field is treated in like manner, and so on 
until all the fields are tile drained, but of course in accordance with 
the general plan mapped out at the beginning. 

After deciding to tile your farm, make a careful study of the land 
and be sure you are correct in your theories before proceeding. Proper 
knowledge of tile underdrainage and how to do it is, of course, abso- 
lutely essential in putting in the correct system for your farm. It is 
the particular points in installing" drain tile systems that we care to 
discuss tn this part. 

Since your tile underdrainage is to be a permanent system, it is 
all important that you have no weak point in same, as for instance, the 
lack of an open free outlet for the water or a failure to maintain a 
regular incline of the tile allowing depressions in the drain lines where 
the silt may deposit and lessen the capacity of the tile drain, either of 
which may render ineft'cctual and useless an otherwise well-executed 
system of drainage costing mone}' and labor. 

The Outlets First of all if tile underdrainage is to pay, all the 

surplus water is to be taken care of, therefore our 
first attention should be directed to the outlets. We should have a 
fair idea of the amount of water there is to be drained ofiL' and our 
main drains should be sufficiently large to take care of more than this 
amount of surplus water. We, of course, must take into consideration 
the general surface configuration of the entire farm and surrounding 
watershed and by taking levels and carefully studying same M^e can 
determine how many outlets to have and just where to locate same. 
An engineering level can be secured at a slight cost and used success- 
fully by the novice if the farmer can not secure the services of a com- 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 77 

petent drainage engineer or surveyor. Of course, the safest plan and 
the most inexpensive plan in the end is to have a man of drainage 
knowledge to outline your work. 

It is, of course, all important to know just where the outlets 
should be located for the free flow of the water and the main and sub- 
main drains must be accurately placed to secure the best results. The 
lateral drains are easily installed after the main and sub-main drains 
are once located. We must know what fall can be had in the difl:erent 
drains (including all), for the size of the tile to be used depends upon 
the fall and the amount of water to be taken care of. Larger sized tile 
are needed for drains having less fall, the length of the system, of 
course, governing this. The greater the fall the more rapidly will the 
Avater pass through the tile and a great amount of water can be taken 
care of. It is necessary also to know the character of the soil and sub- 
soil, the water passing through some soils much more rapidly than 
others. Beginning with the outlet, it should be located at the point 
which will give the greatest fall and direct outflow of water to drain 
the area mapped out for that system, and should be placed as deep as 
the conditions make it feasible. Generally this does not exceed at the 
most 4 or 5 feet. This, however, should not be a fixed depth. The tile 
for the main drain should be suf^ciently large to carry all the water 
that will run onto or fall on the area to be drained by the outlet. 

Size of the Tile I" regard to the size of tile, the writer is pleased to 
include in this article the facts stated by his grand- 
father, J. J. \y. Billingsley, who for many years before his death was 
the editor of the old Drainage Journal and did extensive lecturing be- 
fore the farmers of the Central States on underdrainage and farm 
problems. 

"The size of the tile to be used depends first upon the extent of 
the area to be drained; second, upon the inclination or fall, and third, 
upon the depth of the drains and the character of the soil and sub- 
soil." 

First, as to the area to be drained. To illustrate more fully : A 
proposes to drain twenty acres of land through one outlet, and wishes 
to determine the size of tile for the main drain. He finds that there is 
an area of as much as twenty acres of land adjoining that sheds its 
surface water from rainfalls and water percolating through the soil 
upon and into the land of the twenty acres which he wishes to drain. 
The natural outlet is over or through A's tw^enty acres under consid- 
eration. Therefore, the tile for the main drain and sub-drains should 
be large enough to receive and carry the watershed onto the land. 

For a simple rule for those who wish to construct drains through 
the low places of the farm, a practical drainage contractor gives the 
following as the result of his experience : "On an average the fall 



7^ 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



usually secured is about 6 inches in 100 feet. With ordinary accurate 
work in securing a regular fall, a 3-inch tile drain will carry the water 
of six acres; a 4-inch tile will drain eight acres; a 6-inch tile twenty 
acres, and an 8-inch tile eighty acres." The above rule is for casual, 
not thorough, drainage. 

Second, the inclination or fall is an important factor in determin- 
ing the size of tile to be used. The greater the fall the greater will be 
the rapidity of the water flow, increasing correspondingly the amount 
of water discharged through the drain. A 4-inch drain may have fall 
enough to carry as much water as would flow through a 5-inch drain 
laid with much less fall. A main drain may be laid at almost a level 
grade and do good work, but the size of the tile should be larger in 




First Have a General Plan of System to Be Installed. 



proportion to the less fall for the reason that the water will flov/ less 
rapidly than would the water in a drain with much more fall. 

Third, the depth of the drain is also a factor in determining the 
size of the tile needed to secure the most efficient drainage. The 
greater depth requiring a less size, when the fall is the same as that 
of a drain laid at a less depth, other conditions being equal. 

I'he increased depth gives an increased water pressure in the soil, 
which increases the water flow in the drain. Another reason why the 
size of the tile may be less in deep drainage is that the greater the 
depth of the drained soil and subsoil, the more water there will be re- 
quired to bring the deeper subsoil to the point of saturation, when the 
water will fall away and enter the drain. A soil drained to the depth 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



79 



of 4 feet would receive and hold the water of a heavy rainfall almost 
to the point of saturation before the water would pass into the drain. 
The deeper drainage will aid in conserving needed moisture for the 
growing crops. 

Drainage in England is usually at a depth of from 4 to 5 feet. 
In their retentive clay soils the drains are laid from 20 to 30 feet 
apart, the tile used are small, 1^-inch and 2-inch being in common 
use for the latter drains ; with almost perfect construction their drains 
do good work. But in the experience of some of our most extensive 





Get Your Tile Early and Place Where Drains Are to Go. 



land drainers in this country a 4-inch tile is as small as they will use 
for the side drains to carry off the water of heavy rainfalls, besides it 
is claimed that by using larger tile a better aeration of the soil is se- 
cured. 

Another factor in determining the size of tile to use is the method 
of constructing the drain, the regularity of the fall, the directness of 
the flow of water in the drain and the laying of the tile. 

A drain may be dug and leveled correctly, but the laying of the 
tile may be so imperfect as to greatly diminish the working capacity 
of the drain. By placing the tile in the drain unevenly jointed, or 
shouldered, more or less, the water in flowing through the drain 
strikes against the shoulders and deflects across the current, hindering 



80 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 

the flow, reducing the capacity of the drain at every uneven joint. 

We advise against the use of 3-inch tile in almost every case be- 
cause w^e feel it is poor policy to put in small tile where a larger one 
would sometimes do 50 per cent, better work. It does not cost any 
more to lay a 4-inch tile than it does to lay a 3-inch. 

The Depth of the Drains The depth of the drains of course depends 

on the nature of the soil and levels of the 
outlets. If it is impossible to get the outlets down to four or five feet 
below the general level, shallow draining is, of course, the only way 
out, but that is better than no drainage at all. In speaking of deep or 
shallow drainage, it is generally conceded that a depth of four feet or 
more is deep drainage, three feet medium drainage and 2 to 2^ feet 
shallow drainage. Deep drainage relieves the soil and subsoil of sur- 
plus water to a greater width and makes the fertility available for 
plant growth to a greater depth and needed moisture and affords a 
greater range of root growth, so necessary to the growth of plants. 
The deeper the drain the deeper your food bed. Three to four and a 
half feet depth is advisable when feasible, but the average depth gen- 
cralh' used is around 36 inches. 

Distance Apart The character of the soil and subsoil and the fall 

and inclination should of course govern the dis- 
tance between the lateral drains. Two rods apart is as close as is 
thought necessary in the most retentive soils, the depth being 3 feet. 
W^hen the soil is more open, 3 or even 4 rods distance apart will prove 
satisfactory, providing the drains are 3 or more feet deep. In some 
very open soils with the drains placed at a depth of 3^^ to 4 feet, the 
laterals may be laid at 80 to 100 feet apart. If put in at this distance 
under the conditions mentioned the soil will be drained and aerated 
sufficiently. These drains should join the main or sub-main drains 
at acute angles to prevent the water from the laterals from interfering 
with the current in the lower drain. With the current flowing as 
nearly as possible in the same direction with that of the drain into 
which it empties naturally the drainage water is taken ofif faster. 

Putting in the Ditches Of great importance is the digging of the 

ditches. It must be done carefully. Hand 
digging takes time and labor and is really more expensive and not as 
successful as machine digging. We advise the use of the ditching 
machine and it is not a difficult matter to secure the services of a com- 
petent ditcher, who. will not only dig the ditches, but will help you 
make your plan and do all the work necessary. We will speak of 
ditching by machine a little later. 

If you dig 3'our own ditches be sure to have the sides slope to the 
bottom of the ditch, the bottom being just large enough for the tile 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



81 



to fit. In leveling the bottom of the ditch use a small scoop the size 
of the tile. Remember that you must have a general fall in your line. 
You can readily see if this is so by the flow of the water from head to 
mouth of ditch. 

Laying the Ti!e A\ hen you begin laying the tile, start at the lower 
end of the ditch, join the first tile to the main or 
sub-main drain by chiseling a hole into main line to suit hole in lateral 
tile and cut the latter to fit snugly up against the other. If possible 
get fitting to suit your case; this, however, is most times difficult, for 
the majority of tile manufacturers do not make them. In making the 
union be sure to coxer the cracks with pieces of broken tile. Fit the 
second tile closely to the first, etc., seeing that your tile are straight 




Covering Tile With Straw Before Filling in is a Good Practice. 

so as to have a ])erfect alignment and regular fall. Do not leave s])acc 
between the tile, thinking this is necessary to allow the water to get 
in. You can't place them too tight. If the water is flowing in the 
ditch, do not let it wash any loose dirt into the tile, cover the end of 
the tile with a small board while getting the next tile. Co\'er the tile 
at the ends of the lateral and main drains with gravel or broken tile, 
for otherwise soil or mud may wash in and clog up the system. It is 
good practice to install in the mouth of the outlets iron traps, which 
can be purchased for a small amount. These cover the mouth and 
have a swinging gate which allows the water to flow out, but prevents 
any ground hog or rabbit getting into the tile during a dry season. 



82 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



which will result most times in the animal getting caught, thus clog- 
ging up the system. After the tile are laid throw in a little dirt from 
the top of the bank, being sure not to dislodge the tile. It is good 
practice to cover the joints with sod or weeds or even paper to prevent 
the dirt from entering before you have the tile well covered. After 
the tile are covered the ditch may be filled in any way convenient. 
]\lany farmers plow the soil in on either side. 

Ditching by Machine The most economical and satisfactory way to 
ditch your land is by means of the ditching ma- 
chine. It will make a straight ditch, give a more accurate fall and 
accomplish the work with a saving in time and labor. The ditch does 
not need to be as wide with the machine as when dug by hand. 

I'he illustrations shown are from pictures taken on the farm of 




Fig. ] — Digging Trench for Excavating Portion of Machine. 

Elmer Hutchinson, located near Arlington, Ind. We spent a very 
pleasant day there and were interested in the work done by the ditch- 
ing machine of Frank Meltzer, a farmer who became a ditching con- 
tractor through his thorough belief in tile underdrainage and a desire 
to ditch his own farm with his own machine. He is being kept pretty 
busy in his county these days filling ditching contracts. We do not 
believe we could show the advantage of using the ditching machine 
over hand digging in any better way than by describing what we saw 
on the Hutchinson farm that day. 

They were putting in the laterals eighty feet apart, joining a 
main drain which had been completed the day preceding. The main 
drain emptied into an open ditch skirting one side of the farm. Fortu- 
nately this open ditch was low enough to allow them an outlet nearly 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



83 



nine feet below the general level of the farm. A rather steep fall was 
secured for 2 rods back of the outlet and then there was a gradual 
inclination from a 50-inch depth. The main drain was made with 
7-inch tile, all laterals are to be 5-inch tile. In starting a ditch (see 
Figure 1) they dug a trench eleven feet long and the depth of the de- 
sired drain at the main drain for the placing of the excavation portion 
of the ditching machine in the start of its work. When the hole was 
dug the ditching machine was backed up to and over it and the dig- 
ging portion lowered into same. (See Figure 2.) 

When the machine was located correctly a transit was screwed 
into a sight rod on the machine (see Figure 3) and the engineer took 




Fig. 2- 



-Lowering Excavating Portion of Ditching Machine 
into Prepared Trench. 



the site (see Figure 4) on paddle stakes with cross arms which were 
placed at various points along the line where the ditch was to go. 
By moving the cross arms up or down as was necessary to get all 
cross arms on the same level, a definite guide was secured. The 
transit was then removed and the engineer took his seat on the side 
of the machine where he could look over sight rod all the while the 
machine was moving forward along the line digging the ditch. By 
watching the cross arms sighted over the sight rod the operator could 
tell when to lower or raise the excavating wheels to any depth or 
height needed to keep the bottom of the ditch to the slope giving the 
desired fall. Of course, when the machine would come to a hilly spot 



84 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 





Fig. 3 — Placing Transit onto Sight Rod. 




Pig. 4 — Engineer Using Transit to Get Proper Location of 

Cross- A-rms on Paddle Stakes Placed at Certain 

Distance In a Line to End of Field. 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



85 



the excavating wheels would be lowered and more dirt would be re- 
moved and the reverse was true when a low spot was reached 

As the machine made rapid headway along the line, a boy was 
carrying tile and placing them along the top of the ditch while a sec- 
ond was placing them in the ditch. This latter operation was most 
interesting. (See Figures 5 and 6.) The tile were lowered into the 
ditch and placed in line close up to the last tile by means of a tile hook. 
This was a mallet-shaped arrangement made out of an 18-inch long. 
3-inch square spiece of wood fastened at the middle onto a long pole. 
Both ends of this mallet had rounded edges so that either end could 
be poked into the tile laying on the ground and same lifted up and 
lowered into the ditch, the tile not being touched after it. left the 




Fig. 5- 



-The Machine in Operation — Note Dirt Is Dropped 
to Left from Flying Belt. 



ground. This work was done rapidly and required no man in the 
ditch to see that the tile were straight. In fact the ditch made by the 
ditching machine was not wide enough for a man to get into. Fol- 
lowing the man with the tile hook came the ditching contractor with 
a pair of long props which he placed down in the ditch, one on one 
side of the end of a tile while the other was on the opposite side of 
the ditch and on the closest end of the tile adjoining. By a scissors- 
like movement these two props adjusted the tile so that they were in 
true alignment. It was a simple though clever "stunt." 

The last operation was the hoeing in of the dirt into the ditch. 
Plowing in is a faster operation. It did not take long for the first 
lateral to be completed. Of course the machine got cjuite a little 
ahead of the tile layer due to the fact that the first tile placed had to 



86 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



be fitted to the main tile line, the chiseling out of which, the shaping" 
of the lateral tile and placing broken tile around the cracks taking a 
few minutes. 

In an interview with Mr. Meltzer he stated that he could tile 67 
rods in 4 hours and 20 minutes wdth ordinary weather and soil condi- 
tions. He said he thought that a 2-inch fall to 200 feet was good on 
the average farm, but that they were doing much better than that on 
the Hutchinson farm, getting 18 inches to 3 feet in 200 feet. Five feet 
is the lowest level to place your drainage system, he declared. When 




Fig. 6 — Placing Tile in Ditch by Means of Tile Hook. 

asked the rates per rod that he charged for his work, he gave the fol- 
lowing figures : 45 cents a rod for 5-inch tile, 50 cents a rod for 7-inch 
tile, 55 cents a rod for 8-inch tile and 65 cents a rod for 10-inch tile. 
This, of course, includes digging, tiling and filling; in fact, completes 
the work. Compare this price for the number of rods to be drained 
with the cost of digging by hand and if your estimate is correct you 
will find that the ditching by machine is cheaper. Remember also that 
it is done with more accuracy, gives you a straight ditch, a correct 
fall in the drain and a true alignment of the tile. 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



87 




llHCORRECT WAY- 



Corv^ectWm. 



The above illustration shows the correct and incorrect 
methods of laying large tile. In the figure on the left 
the dirt thrown in on the tile bears an unnecessary 
weight upon the point A. This is apt to cause strains 
at the points A and B due to fact that the tile has no 
support underneath except at the very bottom A. The 
correct way to lay large tile is to imbed it about four 
inches as shown in the sketch on the left. This gives 
it a firm support and the weight of the dirt thrown in 
will not affect it at all. 



Soil Protection and Soil hnprovemeni 



IMPROVEMENT OF OUR RURAL HIGHWAYS 

THE IMPORTANCE OF SUB-DRAINAGE IN ROAD 
CONSTRUCTION 



The Need of The fact that crops must be marketed, together with 
Good Roads the knowledge of the shortage of railroad transporta- 
tion facilities, is focusing the eyes of America more and 
more on the rural roads leading from the farms to commercial centers 
and shipping points. 

Every progressive farmer should be deeply interested in the sub- 
ject of road building, for it is of vital importance to him. He is 
greatly assisted or greatly handicapped if the roads leading from his 
farm to the point of marketing his products are in good or bad con- 
dition. 

We are not going to describe in this article the various types of 
road construction or explain how the rural communities can finance 
same. We desire only to cite the all-important point, the basic prin- 
ciple in any and every kind of good road construction and prove how 
essential it is to the life of and the satisfactory service rendered by 
the rural highway. 

A road or highway is no stronger than the earth forming the sub- 
grade on which it rests. This is a well-recognized fact. Granting 
this to be so, it is all important that we make the sub-grade as strong 
as possible. The only way to obtain a satisfactory sub-grade is by 
proper drainage of the roadbed. The following reasons prove con- 
clusively our contention. 

Did you ever stop to consider the point, Why don't our roads rut 
and cut up in July? 

In the summer months of July and August the ground is very dry 
ind the water level low and little or no destruction to the road from 
any kind of traffic occurs. It's simply because they are dry. 

From this we may rightly draw the conclusion that the funda- 
mental principle in road building in all types of road construction is 
to so build that it shall rest upon a dry sub-grade 365 days in the 
year. This can only be accomplished through sub-drainage, prevent- 
ing water from getting in from the sides and coming up from below 
by capillary action and the waterproofing of the surface by oil or an 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



89 



impervious material such as brick to prevent the water from getting 
in from the top. 

The Cause of The greatest destruction to our roads in this country 
Road Trouble occurs in the winter and spring months due to the 
freezing and thawing made possible by the moisture 
in the ground at that time. In the spring in very wet localities the 
high water level is a destructive element, frequently causing the 
foundation to give way. 

We must admit therefore that moisture and frost are two ele- 




ments that destroy a road. They expand, loosen and make slippery 
and unstable the soil underlying the road and thus make Aveak the 
support of the overlying road surface. We must eliminate these two 
elements and can do so only by sub-drainage and waterproofing. Sur- 
face drainage is all right so far as it goes, but does not prevent an 
injurious amount of water from seeping into the soil underneath the 
road. Proper sub -drainage absolutely prevents this in time. 
The Fundamentals of Remember this, if you can keep 4 feet 

Good Road Construction depth of road dry 365 days during the 

year, that is all that is necessary to have a 
good road. A permanently dry sub-grade gives perfect assurance 
against underneath injury, which is the general cause of failures of 



90 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



road surface. The hard surface road will do away' with oil and espe- 
cially if it is brick, it will be dustless and almost everlasting, giving 
the horses a sure foothold and insuring easy traffic during all seasons 
of the year. 

One string of tile under the center of the road is not sufficient 
simply because it draws the water to the center. A string of tile on 
either side of the roadbed draws the water away from the roadbed. 
The proper sub-drainage, according to an expert road builder, is given 
in the following letter written by W. P. Graham of Rochelle, 111., 
highway commissioner of Ogle County, Illinois, who has been doing 
a grand good work constructing roads and backing up his knowledge 




Tile Trenches 18 Feet Apart. 

and experience with enthusiasm and earnestness in behalf of the tax- 
payers in his portion of the state. 

A Successful Plan "It has proven in years past that all types of 

construction, even the building of large 
buildings or of anything where a foundation was necessary, that un- 
less the foundation was pvit in upon sufficient soilbearing support, 
there was a great deal of danger of settling from which serious dam- 
age results. Taking this broad view of road work and knowing the 
condition of many of the dirt roads in this state and yours and large 
sections of other states, I concluded several years ago that the funda- 
mental principle in road building was sub-drainage. 

"During the past five years I have had a great deal of experience 
in farm drainage from the standpoint of owning land and tiling it out, 
and have seen the result. Mv observation has taught me that when 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



91 



anything is constructed where the ground under the construction is 
apt to be affected by moisture more or less, that it is absolutely neces- 
sary to use tile in order to bring about a dry condition that warrants 
the making of a good foundation uniformly stable. This being true 
in nearly every other line of business, I concluded that it was no less 
true in road building and that the only thing was to work out some 
thorough, practical system where it could be installed in the founda- 
tion work of road building, and without any question would give per- 
manent results. 

"The result of this work was to decide that the proper system in 
road work was to run two strings of tile parallel with the road 18 feet 




Sub-drainage Would Remove This Condition. 

apart, or each string 9 feet from the center, using a 6-inch tile and 
laying it all from 3}4 to 4 feet or better, in accordance with the outlet, 
then grade the road with 50 per cent, less crown than you would if 
the road v.-as not tiled, allow the grade then to settle for one year or 
more, keeping it dragged, then sweep it well and oil it, and you have 
a 365-day road for all time with a small cost in maintenance, for the 
18 feet between these tile will get drier and harder every year. In 
five years the moisture is practically eliminated from the 18 feet of 
ground, and consequently during the winter months very little frost 
will enter this part of the road. 

"When you have produced such a condition, and it is absolutely 
possible to do this, you have the highest type of dirt road construc- 
tion, and there is no road better to drive on than a good dirt road. 
And should one want to make a hard road of this, you ha^e the very 



92 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



best foundation and will need only half as much material to build the 
hard road, thereby eliminating a lot of expense, to say nothing about a 
good dirt road until such a time as the hard road is necessary/. 

The Cost "You doubtless will say that such a plan is all well and 
good, but it costs too much. Such is not the case, for I 
have sub-drained several miles, then with the grading and oiling, tak- 
ing" into account different prices of oil, have expended less than $1,5U0 
per mile. This is based on the present high cost of everything. Under 
ordinary conditions, when worked dow^n to a system, it can be done 
for much less. I am trying now to work out such a system, but of 
course have no control over the high cost of material and labor. 

"I feel confident that if this system had been used a few years pre- 
vious to the present agitation for high-cost-per-mile road construc- 
tion, it would have saA ed the taxpayers millions and millions of dol- 
lars, and we would have had good roads, too. 

"As an example, we had one mile of hard road in our township, 
with a quicksand bottom, and for many motiths of the year this road 
was in a frightful condition because of the quicksand filling with 
water, consequently w^eakening the base and destroying the road. 
The taxpayers found it impossible to keep this road in repair. 

"I tiled this road with two strings of tile 18 feet apart, scarified the 
surface, and added to the surface a small amount of stone, more to 
clean it than anything else, so I could use an asphalt dressing. Then 
rolled it well, asphalted the top, and it has been in use four summers 
and four winters, with very heavy traffic, and they have not made a 
mark in the road, the resurfacing costing only $1,800 per mile on an 
average haul of three miles. I could duplicate this job for $350 less 
per mile, as this was my first experience. 




GROUND 



— I8FT >> 



ioFT 



I 

When the water rises up in the ground 
as of line A to a point at B, the lateral pres- 
sure forces towards the tile on both sides 
and is taken away, so that no water ever gets 
into the space 18 feet wide and 4 feet deep, 
directly under the traffic line and the water- 
proof top keeps it from entering there, there- 
fore, a dry cake of ground that will never 
give way. Dirt roads can be made 365 day 
roads in this manner. 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 93 

"The results obtained here can be obtained on any type of dirt 
road in any locality. 

"History repeats itself in everything, and it has done so in road 
building, and we have found that all over the country roads built on 
what was considered a permanent foundation showed in ten or fifteen 
years to be anything but permanent, because of the capillary attrac- 
tion of the water below this construction, which some years came high 
enough to afifect the road, and down went your construction. The 
plan which I have suggested will eliminate every bit of this trouble. 
It matters not what type of soil you have or how much water you 
have, it is possible to dry 18 feet of the ground between the two 
strings of tile, if that space has been properly crowned, oiled, con- 
creted, asphalted or bricked, which will serve as a waterproof top. 
This system prevents water from coming in from the sides, no matter 
how high the water level is outside, and then the waterproof top pre- 
vents the water entering from the top of the road, and therefore you 
have dry space of ground the depth of your tile, which is the best type 
of foundation for any road. 

"I believe the thinking people of today who are following this 
road question are almost satisfied that a brick construction on a much 
traveled road is practically the only road that will hold up outside of 
dirt when a dirt road is dry. Where the road is excessively traveled, 
the dust, so injurious to most crops growing near the road, is elimi- 
nated by the use of brick for the wearing surface. For this reason this 
road question, in my judgment, resolves itself to this : if we will tile 
our roads and then grade them and allow them to settle two years and 
oil them, we will have the best roads in the world until the time comes 
when we can afford the brick, and on much-traveled roads the brick 
road will eventually be put in. Thus, if the dirt road has been sub- 
drained previoush', the brick road when built will have the most satis- 
factory^ foundation possible." 

Mr. Graham accepted the of^ce of township highway commis- 
sioner under the single commissioner plan, to serve his people to the 
best of his ability in securing good highway construction. His well- 
merited success is shown in the many miles of excellent roads he has 
built near Rochelle, 111., and the great reduction he has made in the 
cost of making same. 

Mr. Graham built the road mentioned seven years ago. We wrote 
him recently asking for information regarding its present ccmdition 
and as to recommendations he cared to make at this time. In reply 
we received the following letter: 

Rockford, 111., Nov. 7. 1921. 
Mr. J. E. Randall, Indianapolis, Ind. : 

Dear Mr. Randall — I can offer you no change in my plan of the 
sub-drainage of roads, and, further, I think more of the plan each 



94 Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



year. The road I built has been used now seven years, with very 
heavy traffic, and is in excellent condition today, and it cost $1,800 
to surface it. 

The edge of that road, or new surface, is not over 3 to 4 inches 
thick, and yet I \^ould be only too glad to have you drive an 11 -ton 
tractor, with inch-and-a-half lugs on the wheels, on that road, and put 
the big wheel right on the edge, and you will not destroy it. It has 
been done a number of times, and not long ago, when T examined the 
road, it was all there. The original bed of this road was water and 
quicksand. 

The two strings of tile are sufficient; it will do the business and 
do it right. 

I cannot understand why people do not seem to see the practical 
part of the sub-drainage of road beds. 

Very truly yours, 

W. P. GRAHAM. 

It is claimed by some of our leading men in road-building con- 
struction that breaks in the surface of a cement road are not due to 
expansion, but instead are caused by contraction. They have it 
worked out scientifically and as nearly accurate as these matters can 
be determined, and inspection of roads with cross-breaks indicate that 
they are right in their analysis. They claim that the lengthwise cracks 
are caused by water running off the edge of the hard surface and 
puddling underneath the slab, so that for considerable space tht. con- 
crete rests on nothing and is merely a bridge resting on the nigh 
point of the sub-base, and that when the traffic becomes heaA^y enough 
it will break down. All of this proves that the sub-base should be 
bone-dry and kept so. 

Mr. Graham had a certain type of soil to consider in his section of 
Illinois and we heartily indorse his method, but we woidd go a step 
further. The far greater area of soils in the country are of a plastic 
character, through which water seeps slowly, but when ouce saturated 
renders the soil exceedingly unstable, and, if frozen, expands and later 
contracts with great force, effecting se\'ere injury to the road surface. 

An Ideal System Mr. Will P. Blair, a member of the Committee on 
of Sub-drainage Sub-grade and Its Relation to Road Surfacing and 
Traffic, of the Federal Highway Council, which is 
carrying on some splendid research work along this line, in a recent 
conversation with the writer advocated the following treatment which 
he believes (and, indeed, it appeals strongly to me) will maintain a 
sub-grade of such soils in a dry condition, preserving the roadbed 
from injury resulting from both capillary and lateral water saturation 
and secu.ring a maximum stabilization. In farm drainage capillary 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 



K— ' 



18 FT. 



-Jk 8 FT ^ 



,6 INCH TILE 



95 




Figure Ome 




1^ 34 FEET- ri 

FiCrVJRE TWO 

Two Sectional Drawings of a System for the Sub- 
drainage of Roads That Will Eliminate Entirely Any 
Danger From Water and Make the Sub-grade Dry 365 
Davs in the Year and an Extra Day in Leap Year, 
Guaranteeing for All Times Ideal Road Conditions, 



96 Soil Protection and Soil Improvemc?it 



water is very beneficial, but in road drainage it is detrimental. We 
must remove every chance for moisture in the sub-grade, hence the 
system of sub-drainage must be more elaborate, and with this thought 
in mind Mr. Blair's system has much merit. 

The disposal drain is placed 8 feet either edge of the wearing 
surface of the road ; this receives surface water flow through the sur- 
face water inlets, also flow of water from lateral drains placed under- 
neath the road, as well as all the seepage water estopped by the per- 
pendicular of coarse gravel, broken stone or slag extending from main 
drain 6 feet below the surface to a point near the top of the ground. 

The lateral drains underneath the roadway are placed (according 
to the character of the soil) 10 to 20 feet apart, with a fall of 1 inch 
to the foot, and leading into the main drain at an angle of 45 degrees. 

The placement of the lateral lines underneath the road at such 
shorter distances apart than is reqiured in farm underdrainage is 
deemed advisable for the prevention of the capillary action and to thus 
keep the road in a drier condition than in the other system. 

Advantages T"he system is below the influence of frost, taking away 
moisture in winter as well as in summer. 
Eliminates extraordinary expense of upkeep of the open ditch, 
which, if it functions at all, must ha\'e constant attention, especially 
in the spring of the year. 

Eliminates expense of keeping the roadsides mowed, which can 
be done only by hand, in case of the open ditch, but installing system 
as outlined roadsides can be mowed with ordinary farm horse-power 
moAver, and the field can be cultivated much nearer the roadside, in- 
creasing materialh^ the area to be farmed. 

Eliminates the dangers of accidents caused b}^ the menace of the 
treacherous open ditch. 

We must bear in mind that the almost universal method of drain- 
age is the construction of big open ditches on the side of the road. 
But observation as to their behavior and the disadvantages of this 
character of drainage needs to be given careful consideration to arrive 
at an answer as to whether or not it is the best and most economical 
method for securing the results wished for. 

In the first place, the construction of these side ditches costs a lot 
of money. It costs a great deal more to maintain them. In the winter, 
follov.'ing a frozen condition, with a succeeding rainfall, they become 
dammed up at places and do not function. Instead we have a system 
of reservoirs along the side of the road by which moisture is supplied 
to the sub-grade by capillary attraction, furnishing to the roadbed and 
sub-Soil underneath the very element of destruction which we wish 
to avoid. More rain, greater saturization and more frost, ends in the 
complete destruction of the road, so that it is made entirely unfit for 



Soil Protection and Soil Improvement 97 



travel. Then again, in the summer time, when we go to mow the 
weeds and briers from the roadside, the expense mounts high, when 
if the same operation could be performed with a mower th*'. expense 
would be insignificant. 

Again, these open ditches by the roadside are and always were a 
hazard of danger, and particularly so now, when so many automobiles 
are used upon the road; these side ditches arc as dangerous to life as 
if the precipice was multiplied to one hundred feet. The destruction 
resulting from a plunge into the ditch is ecpially fatal. 

Contrasted with this method of drainage, and at no greatei ex- 
pense in the end, is the resort to the more liberal use of drain tile. 
This can be placed as disposal drains on either side of the road and 
takes the place of the open ditch. Below the freezing point, they will 
work at all times, winter and summer, whenever there is sufficient 
moisture in the ground to be carried to a final disposal place. Then 
frequent drains underneath the roadbed itself, leading to the disposal 
tiles on either side of the road, will tend to prevent the roadbed sat- 
urization from capillary movement of moisture. The direct rainfall 
can readily be cared for at manhole openings located at short distances 
from each other. In soils through which water flows exceedingly 
slow, this system can be supplemented by placing over the entire 
area thus tile drained a layer of broken stone, gravel, rotten rock or 
slag; this will both accelerate the flow of water to the tile and pre- 
vent any flow of water by capillary action into the upper structure 
of the road. 

Thus the employment of a liberal use of drain tile for road drain- 
age not only aft'ords, but it is the only manner at present known of 
successful road drainage. It does not entail the everlasting annual 
expense and functions efficiently for the purpose, so that in the end 
it is far less expensive than the open ditch. 

The use of drain tile for road drainage in this manner is of equal 
importance regardless of the character of the wearing surface. It 
adds to the durability of the brick road and is absolutely essential to 
the life of a road of any character. Even a graded dirt road is bene- 
fited much beyond the expense necessary for the installation of a 
drainage system by the use of the tile, making the drainage structure 
a permanent and lasting one and thus eliminating a recurrence of ex- 
pense which has become an annual tax and a great burden to road 
upkeep throughout the country. 

We want to emphasize the necessity of the farmers keeping con- 
stantly in mind and to strongly insist when the subject of good roads 
is under consideration in their community^, that the all-important item 
in good road construction — proper sub-drainage— is adhered to. 



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UBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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